Hello,
The Yankees played in the afternoon yesterday and they had lost to the Blue Jays. (Thank you Blue Jays!) So the time the Orioles-Red Sox game started last night the Orioles were only one-half game behind the Yankees. With a win they'd be tied with New York for the lead in the AL East. The Orioles jumped to a 3-0 lead on the Red Sox. However Boston showed some fight and came back and tied the Orioles at 3-3. Then mid-season call up Manny Machado hit a home run in the bottom of the 7th inning and the Orioles held on for a 4-3 win. The Orioles and Yankees are now tied for first place in the AL East. Both teams have 4 games left in their seasons.
Not only are the Orioles and Yankees battling for the AL East, but they are also battling for who hosts a game if a tiebreaker is needed. The AL Wildcard continues to be close as well. Oakland is on track to be the AL's second wild card team. However they also could move up to be the AL Wild Card's first place wild card team. That means they'd be able to host the AL Wildcard playoff game.
In the NL playoff chase the only remaining intrigue is whether the Dodgers can catch the Cardinals. Entering Sunday's games, St. Louis lead the Dodgers by two games. Both teams have 4 games left. After the Dodgers and Cardinals games today, both the Dodgers will be playing their final 3 games against first place teams. Both teams will also be playing at home.
Both the AL East and the AL Wild Card should make for a very exciting final 4 days of the regular season. I'm fairly sure that the Cardinals will hold on in the NL Wild Card.
themusicaddict
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Friday, September 28, 2012
More Greatest Books, "Last Resort", "Vegas"
Hello,
Here's some of the greatest books I've ever read:
1) James Bradley's "Flags of Our Fathers"
2) Michael Crichton's "Jurassic Park", the book is about 100 times better than the movie.
3) Jose Saramago's "Blindness". Sadly a little known modern day classic.
4) Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five". This is an amazing, gut wrenching and hilarious novel. Don't be put off by the title.
5) Elmore Leonard's "Get Shorty". An amazing book and the role that John Travolta was born to play. Unfortunately this is the only Leonard book that I've absolutely loved.
6) Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird". Both the book and the movie are amazing. Gregory Peck was amazing!
7) Richard Russo's "Empire Falls"
8) Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove"
9) Neil Sheehan's "A Bright Shining Lie" An amazing book if you are interested in the whole mess that was the Vietnam War.
Obviously the "Last Resort" in the title refers to the TV show that debuted last night. However the first thing I think of when I hear the words "Last Resort" is "Cut myself into pieces, this is my last resort, suffocation, no breathing.....":
But obviously the "Last Resort" I'm referring too is ABC's new show that debuted last night. Honestly this is one of the best premieres I've ever seen. The story is the right mix of humor, action and heart felt sentimentality. The actors and characters are great, Andre Braugher is amazing as Captain Marcus Chaplin. (Although I'm still sad that the excellent "Men Of A Certain Age" was canceled .) I enjoy the lovely Autumn Reeser as lobbyist Kylie Sinclair. If she doesn't fit her role exactly, just go with it. She was in "No Ordinary Family", a show that started out strongly. But it fizzled after just a few episodes. Finally the amazing Robert Patrick is in this show. He played one of the greatest villains in cinema's history, the T-1000 chasing Arnold Schwartzenegger's Terminator. "Terminator 2" is still one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's hard to believe that James Cameron also made that weepy piece of crap "Titanic".
Reeser has the kind of quirky beauty, she isn't a traditional beauty. The kind of woman that looks good even when rocking a pair of glasses. Sadly she's not on the USS Colorado so there'll be no Grace Parkish bikini shots. There are some very hot pictures on-line of Reeser if you are interested. The lovely Miss Reeser:
Here's some of the greatest books I've ever read:
1) James Bradley's "Flags of Our Fathers"
2) Michael Crichton's "Jurassic Park", the book is about 100 times better than the movie.
3) Jose Saramago's "Blindness". Sadly a little known modern day classic.
4) Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five". This is an amazing, gut wrenching and hilarious novel. Don't be put off by the title.
5) Elmore Leonard's "Get Shorty". An amazing book and the role that John Travolta was born to play. Unfortunately this is the only Leonard book that I've absolutely loved.
6) Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird". Both the book and the movie are amazing. Gregory Peck was amazing!
7) Richard Russo's "Empire Falls"
8) Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove"
9) Neil Sheehan's "A Bright Shining Lie" An amazing book if you are interested in the whole mess that was the Vietnam War.
Obviously the "Last Resort" in the title refers to the TV show that debuted last night. However the first thing I think of when I hear the words "Last Resort" is "Cut myself into pieces, this is my last resort, suffocation, no breathing.....":
But obviously the "Last Resort" I'm referring too is ABC's new show that debuted last night. Honestly this is one of the best premieres I've ever seen. The story is the right mix of humor, action and heart felt sentimentality. The actors and characters are great, Andre Braugher is amazing as Captain Marcus Chaplin. (Although I'm still sad that the excellent "Men Of A Certain Age" was canceled .) I enjoy the lovely Autumn Reeser as lobbyist Kylie Sinclair. If she doesn't fit her role exactly, just go with it. She was in "No Ordinary Family", a show that started out strongly. But it fizzled after just a few episodes. Finally the amazing Robert Patrick is in this show. He played one of the greatest villains in cinema's history, the T-1000 chasing Arnold Schwartzenegger's Terminator. "Terminator 2" is still one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's hard to believe that James Cameron also made that weepy piece of crap "Titanic".
Reeser has the kind of quirky beauty, she isn't a traditional beauty. The kind of woman that looks good even when rocking a pair of glasses. Sadly she's not on the USS Colorado so there'll be no Grace Parkish bikini shots. There are some very hot pictures on-line of Reeser if you are interested. The lovely Miss Reeser:
Another babe on the show is Daisy Betts. I'd be glad for her to be my commanding officer. She plays Lt. Grace Shepard.
Like "No Ordinary Family" I'm afraid that "The Last Resort" is going to have a significant drop off after perhaps just a couple of episodes. Again the first episode was amazing, but previews of the second episode aren't quite as promising. There's no way this show can keep up with the amazing first episode.
Speaking of "No Ordinary Family" alumni, Michael Chiklis is in another show on Fall's TV schedule. He's one of stars in "Vegas". This is the show set in early 1960's Las Vegas, right before it became the big gambling/ sleeze mecca it is today. Dennis Quaid and Jason O'Mara also star in this. (O'Mara has had a recent run of bad luck in TV series. He doesn't seem to want to play in movies set in current times. He was great in the quirky 70's cop show "Life On Mars", a show I loved. He also went back a long ways in "Terra Nova". I'm afraid "Vegas" may not break his losing streak. Mara plays a cop in all three shows.)
Anyway this was a decent show. With it being set in the 60's it has a very "Mad Men" feel to it. I love the 1960's Vegas sets. I can't imagine how much money it cost to build those, they look so realistic.
themusicaddict
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Madonna The Great
Hello,
Just like "Christine" another thing that took me back to the amazing 80's was this Madonna concert. This was her 1985 tour, The Virgin Tour. I love how her voice sounds live.
The 1990 Blond Ambition Tour is also good. The early 90's probably was the best time to see Madonna in concert. She had enough great songs to do a full concert, but it was before she released some of her clunkier later material. Although the attempted humor and all the filler is very annoying. Madonna is one person I've never seen in concert. Even if I could I wouldn't want to see her current tour. She's only had a few great songs over the last several years.
themusicaddict
"Hearts in Atlantis", "Blockade Billy", "The Mindy Project"
Hello,
Last night I finished reading Stephen King's "Hearts In Atlantis", the ending wasn't as good as I hoped. "Heavenly Nights....", the last story, didn't pack the emotional wallop that I was expecting. Would I recommend to people to read this book, most definitely. It's still a great book. The first two narratives in the book were the best of the bunch. "Low Men In Yellow Coats" is classic King and "Hearts In Atlantis" is very good. I'm not sure how King is able to mix the combination of sentimentally and fright so well together. I'd think that those two things couldn't work together. However in the hands of King, they work very well together.
I then spent a few minutes looking through my books, which is usually one of my favorite things about reading. I even picked up "Christine" and reread the first few lines again. That books reminds me of where I was in life when I read it, about 1985. I didn't choose to read that book, but I allowed the memory of that time to occupy me a few moments. In picking a book, there are so many tantalizing possibilities that each book may have. Do I want to travel to Malta ("The Jukebox Queen of Malta") or Uganda (The Last King of Scotland") or stay in America? I decided to stay in America and enjoy a book about our national pastime. I'm next reading King's "Blockade Billy". It's a book by itself, yet is about half of the length of "Low Men In Yellow Coats". I read the first third of it. I probably would have read the whole thing if not for those darn responsibilities of mine.
Before that though I wanted to watch some TV. One of the shows I wanted to watch was "Vegas". However it's not on Comcast On Demand. That always surprises me how short-sighted some people are. I did watch "Go On", it was another enjoyable episode. Of all the comedies this season, that's one of my two favorites. My other favorite being "Inbetweeners". Those two shows are so much funnier than most of the shows that are trying to pass as "comedies" this fall. (Although "Castle" isn't a comedy per se, I usually laugh several times during that show.) In about a week or so, I expect that "Guys With Kids", "Ben and Kate" or the most ridiculous TV concept ever "The Mob Doctor" to be cancelled.
"Neighbors" had decent numbers last night so will probably last at least a few weeks. Although I still have no desire to watch it. With some of the shows mentioned above I suggest this could be the worst fall season in many years. How are terrible shows like "The Mob Doctor" and "Guys With Kids" even reaching TV? So very few of these shows seem to have the potential to last a long time. But what do I know the horrendous "The Killing" lasted two seasons.
Besides "Go On", I also watched "The Mindy Project" last night. Hmm, I just don't know. I mean it was okay and the show does have sort of a dorky charm to it. But the durability issue comes up again. The humor of dating has already been mined hundreds of times. What can this show do to extend that premise beyond one season? Mindy Lahiri, Mindy Kaling's character, comes off as desperate. Too desperate to be very funny. And are these not the least believable doctors ever?
I feel like Clara Peller and want to ask "Where's the comedy?" Compared to some of it's peers though, it could be a lot worse.
I look forward to finally seeing the much buzzed premiere of "The Last Resort" tonight. This show may be one of the few shows to actually have some durability. I wonder how long the show will be able to live up to the frenetic pace of the premiere. Just from the trailer, there seems to be a lot stuffed into just an hour show. Maybe after seeing the premiere tonight things will be clearer.
I also am excited to seeing "Elementary" tonight, although I do have some trepidation about it. It's yet another cop show, something we desperately don't need. Maybe it will be like "Copper", a show that's different enough to be interesting. "Copper" has very strong characters, which is one of it's strengths. One thing that would help set "Elementary" apart is if it doesn't rely on the tried, true and very boring case of the week format. Perhaps have a case that stretches over two or three weeks. Perhaps some weeks they don't even need a case and just focus on the relationships of the characters. I watch a show for it's solid storytelling.
I know television is risk averse, but isn't there room for something slightly different? Many of my favorite shows are a bit out of the ordinary. Shows like "Mad Men", "The Walking Dead", "Copper" and even "Lost" break the mold of normal TV. Well at least they break the mold, until they become the mold. There are too many shows that are trying to be "the next Lost". I get bored easily thus I want TV that both entertains and challenges me. The only challenging thing that most current TV does to me is challenging me to stay awake.
I may watch a dumb show sometimes, on those times when I just want to turn off my brain and watch TV.
themusicaddict
Last night I finished reading Stephen King's "Hearts In Atlantis", the ending wasn't as good as I hoped. "Heavenly Nights....", the last story, didn't pack the emotional wallop that I was expecting. Would I recommend to people to read this book, most definitely. It's still a great book. The first two narratives in the book were the best of the bunch. "Low Men In Yellow Coats" is classic King and "Hearts In Atlantis" is very good. I'm not sure how King is able to mix the combination of sentimentally and fright so well together. I'd think that those two things couldn't work together. However in the hands of King, they work very well together.
I then spent a few minutes looking through my books, which is usually one of my favorite things about reading. I even picked up "Christine" and reread the first few lines again. That books reminds me of where I was in life when I read it, about 1985. I didn't choose to read that book, but I allowed the memory of that time to occupy me a few moments. In picking a book, there are so many tantalizing possibilities that each book may have. Do I want to travel to Malta ("The Jukebox Queen of Malta") or Uganda (The Last King of Scotland") or stay in America? I decided to stay in America and enjoy a book about our national pastime. I'm next reading King's "Blockade Billy". It's a book by itself, yet is about half of the length of "Low Men In Yellow Coats". I read the first third of it. I probably would have read the whole thing if not for those darn responsibilities of mine.
Before that though I wanted to watch some TV. One of the shows I wanted to watch was "Vegas". However it's not on Comcast On Demand. That always surprises me how short-sighted some people are. I did watch "Go On", it was another enjoyable episode. Of all the comedies this season, that's one of my two favorites. My other favorite being "Inbetweeners". Those two shows are so much funnier than most of the shows that are trying to pass as "comedies" this fall. (Although "Castle" isn't a comedy per se, I usually laugh several times during that show.) In about a week or so, I expect that "Guys With Kids", "Ben and Kate" or the most ridiculous TV concept ever "The Mob Doctor" to be cancelled.
"Neighbors" had decent numbers last night so will probably last at least a few weeks. Although I still have no desire to watch it. With some of the shows mentioned above I suggest this could be the worst fall season in many years. How are terrible shows like "The Mob Doctor" and "Guys With Kids" even reaching TV? So very few of these shows seem to have the potential to last a long time. But what do I know the horrendous "The Killing" lasted two seasons.
Besides "Go On", I also watched "The Mindy Project" last night. Hmm, I just don't know. I mean it was okay and the show does have sort of a dorky charm to it. But the durability issue comes up again. The humor of dating has already been mined hundreds of times. What can this show do to extend that premise beyond one season? Mindy Lahiri, Mindy Kaling's character, comes off as desperate. Too desperate to be very funny. And are these not the least believable doctors ever?
I feel like Clara Peller and want to ask "Where's the comedy?" Compared to some of it's peers though, it could be a lot worse.
I look forward to finally seeing the much buzzed premiere of "The Last Resort" tonight. This show may be one of the few shows to actually have some durability. I wonder how long the show will be able to live up to the frenetic pace of the premiere. Just from the trailer, there seems to be a lot stuffed into just an hour show. Maybe after seeing the premiere tonight things will be clearer.
I also am excited to seeing "Elementary" tonight, although I do have some trepidation about it. It's yet another cop show, something we desperately don't need. Maybe it will be like "Copper", a show that's different enough to be interesting. "Copper" has very strong characters, which is one of it's strengths. One thing that would help set "Elementary" apart is if it doesn't rely on the tried, true and very boring case of the week format. Perhaps have a case that stretches over two or three weeks. Perhaps some weeks they don't even need a case and just focus on the relationships of the characters. I watch a show for it's solid storytelling.
I know television is risk averse, but isn't there room for something slightly different? Many of my favorite shows are a bit out of the ordinary. Shows like "Mad Men", "The Walking Dead", "Copper" and even "Lost" break the mold of normal TV. Well at least they break the mold, until they become the mold. There are too many shows that are trying to be "the next Lost". I get bored easily thus I want TV that both entertains and challenges me. The only challenging thing that most current TV does to me is challenging me to stay awake.
I may watch a dumb show sometimes, on those times when I just want to turn off my brain and watch TV.
themusicaddict
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Songs That Are Currently Rocking My World
Hello,
I'm writing this blog because I included "The House That Built Me" on an earlier blog. Some songs that are currently rocking my world or iTunes or my iPod reminded me of. Enjoy.
I love me some Sugarland, "Baby Girl":
Rascal Flatts "What Hurts The Most", just one of their many amazing songs:
Reel Big Fish "Sell Out":
American Bang's "Wild and Young":
Seether's "Fur Cue":
Dragonette's "Pick Up The Phone":
Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach":
The Black Keys "Tighten Up": (What a great video.)
The Black Keys "Next Girl":
"I feel so unsure as I take your hand and lead you to the dance floor". One of my favorite lines ever from a song. George Michael's "Careless Whisper":
80's Madonna was the best:
yesistillamthemusicaddict
I'm writing this blog because I included "The House That Built Me" on an earlier blog. Some songs that are currently rocking my world or iTunes or my iPod reminded me of. Enjoy.
I love me some Sugarland, "Baby Girl":
Rascal Flatts "What Hurts The Most", just one of their many amazing songs:
Reel Big Fish "Sell Out":
American Bang's "Wild and Young":
Seether's "Fur Cue":
Dragonette's "Pick Up The Phone":
Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach":
The Black Keys "Tighten Up": (What a great video.)
The Black Keys "Next Girl":
"I feel so unsure as I take your hand and lead you to the dance floor". One of my favorite lines ever from a song. George Michael's "Careless Whisper":
80's Madonna was the best:
yesistillamthemusicaddict
Why I Love To Read
Hello,
"Hearts In Atlantis" is a series of five interconnected narratives. Some are short and some are a bit longer. For instance "Low Men In Yellow Coats" takes up nearly half of the book. The five narratives are as follows:
1) "Low Men In Yellow Coats", it's both extremely creepy and also a great coming of age story that King is so good at. Read "The Body", it's the basis for the excellent movie "Stand By Me". This same combination can also be found in "It" and the amazing "Christine".
2) "Hearts In Atlantis" Last night I finished reading the actual "Hearts In Atlantis" narrative where the title of the book comes from. I love how King has interconnected all these stories together. Carol Gerber is a main character in the first two stories, although the protagonists are completely different. Carol Gerber also plays a small role in the third story.
Anyway I just want to share a bit of the magic of King's writing. To truly appreciate this sentence you have to read the actual story. However this sentence shows how good of a writer King is. I know he doesn't get much credit from critics.
Here's the amazing sentence:
"And sometimes, in my dreams and memories (the older I get the more they seem to be the same), I smell the place where I spoke that language with such easy authority: a whiff of earth, a scent of oranges, and the fading smell of flowers".
3) "Blind Willie" I'm about half way through the 3rd story, "Blind Willie" now. It's an interesting story
4) "Why We're In Vietnam"
5) "Heavenly Shades of Nights Are Falling" is the fifth and final narrative. I can't wait to get to this story, as it's the what happened following the events in the book's first story.
Anyway this blog isn't meant to be about Stephen King's writing, it's about why I love to read. I'm currently reading "Atlantis" so it's very much on my mind. I once read a book's intro where someone wrote that they would go through life again just so they could read the book again for the first time. I can't remember the actual book where I saw that line, but doesn't that capture the greatness of reading? I love that I can be anywhere in the world just by opening a book. I've never understood how people don't absolutely love reading. I have "Hearts In Atlantis" right next to me and I can't wait to finish it. But I have responsibilities to take care of first and other things I want to do.
Another thing I like about King's books is that the majority of them are very long. That gives one a chance to get completely lost in his world and yet the world doesn't end after 300 pages. With some books I read, I have to make myself stop reading. The reason why is if I give my brain a chance to think things through, insights and thoughts come to me. These thoughts may not have come to me if I rushed through the book. And I may have missed some of other things that made the book so good.
I also want to list some of the books that I would live my life over again just to read for the first time.
1) "Christine" is above, but seriously it's such an amazing book. (The movie isn't very good.) In high school I was a Stephen King snob, which just makes me laugh now. I can't remember the details of why I decided to give one of his books a chance. The book I chose is "Christine", what an amazing book. I actually was looking through my books last night and saw the copy of that book that I read all those years ago. I picked it up and held it in my hand. I had to stop myself from jumping back into this book.
2) John Irving's "A Prayer For Owen Meany". Again this is a book I discovered at school, SLCC. I was at SLCC and looking to kill some time. I went to the school bookstore and they had "Owen Meany". I picked it up randomly and absolutely loved it. Easily one of the best books I've ever read in my life.
3) Tom Clancy's "The Hunt For Red October", another book I discovered at a school. I came across this book at Ricks College. Again I was just looking for a book to read. I read this book way before Tom Clancy was a household name. It's a book I just randomly picked up. Honestly I was blown away. This also happens to be one of the very few books where the movie is actually better. That's mainly because the ending of the movie ("You killed us!") is so much better than the ending of the book.
4) James Michener's "Chesapeake".
5) Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes". An extremely well written book about McCourt's devastating life growing up.
6) Dave Eggers "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius". See above. (Although his "The Wild Things" is brutally boring.) I found it especially poignant when Eggers went back to visit his childhood home.
Miranda Lambert's "The House That Built Me":
7) Dean Koontz's "Lightning". I'm sort of lukewarm on Koontz, but this book was fantastic.
8) Neal Stephenson "Anathem". This is for those of you who think that science fiction can't make great literature.
9) Garth Stein's "The Art of Racing In The Rain".
10) John Grogan's "Marley and Me". The movie wasn't as good as the book. However the movie had me in tears the final 15 minutes.
11) Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air".
12) Ursula Hegi "Stones From The River". Yes, this is Oprah Winfrey's first book club selection. And yes she has badly missed on some of the books she picked, but Hegi's novel is a classic.
13) Laura Hillenbrand's "Seabuiscuit".
14) Ivan Doig's "Dancing At The Rascal Fair". It's the first book of a trilogy, but can be read by itself.
15) Stieg Larson's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" trilogy, yes all three books.
16) Neil Strauss's "The Dirt", yes it's that good. Nikki Sixx's "The Heroin Diaries" is good, but very heartbreaking. Anthony Kiedis' "Scar Tissue" is virtually unreadable. I was glad I was able to donate my copy, hopefully someone enjoyed it.
17) Stephen Davis' "Hammer of the Gods", his Led Zeppelin biography. His biography of Jim Morrison, "Life, Death, Legend" is decent but not quite as good.
You'll notice about half of these books are split between fiction and non-fiction. It's more about the writing than the subject matter.
I'll be adding books that have meant a lot to me over my lifetime as I think of them.
themusicaddict
"Hearts In Atlantis" is a series of five interconnected narratives. Some are short and some are a bit longer. For instance "Low Men In Yellow Coats" takes up nearly half of the book. The five narratives are as follows:
1) "Low Men In Yellow Coats", it's both extremely creepy and also a great coming of age story that King is so good at. Read "The Body", it's the basis for the excellent movie "Stand By Me". This same combination can also be found in "It" and the amazing "Christine".
2) "Hearts In Atlantis" Last night I finished reading the actual "Hearts In Atlantis" narrative where the title of the book comes from. I love how King has interconnected all these stories together. Carol Gerber is a main character in the first two stories, although the protagonists are completely different. Carol Gerber also plays a small role in the third story.
Anyway I just want to share a bit of the magic of King's writing. To truly appreciate this sentence you have to read the actual story. However this sentence shows how good of a writer King is. I know he doesn't get much credit from critics.
Here's the amazing sentence:
"And sometimes, in my dreams and memories (the older I get the more they seem to be the same), I smell the place where I spoke that language with such easy authority: a whiff of earth, a scent of oranges, and the fading smell of flowers".
3) "Blind Willie" I'm about half way through the 3rd story, "Blind Willie" now. It's an interesting story
4) "Why We're In Vietnam"
5) "Heavenly Shades of Nights Are Falling" is the fifth and final narrative. I can't wait to get to this story, as it's the what happened following the events in the book's first story.
Anyway this blog isn't meant to be about Stephen King's writing, it's about why I love to read. I'm currently reading "Atlantis" so it's very much on my mind. I once read a book's intro where someone wrote that they would go through life again just so they could read the book again for the first time. I can't remember the actual book where I saw that line, but doesn't that capture the greatness of reading? I love that I can be anywhere in the world just by opening a book. I've never understood how people don't absolutely love reading. I have "Hearts In Atlantis" right next to me and I can't wait to finish it. But I have responsibilities to take care of first and other things I want to do.
Another thing I like about King's books is that the majority of them are very long. That gives one a chance to get completely lost in his world and yet the world doesn't end after 300 pages. With some books I read, I have to make myself stop reading. The reason why is if I give my brain a chance to think things through, insights and thoughts come to me. These thoughts may not have come to me if I rushed through the book. And I may have missed some of other things that made the book so good.
I also want to list some of the books that I would live my life over again just to read for the first time.
1) "Christine" is above, but seriously it's such an amazing book. (The movie isn't very good.) In high school I was a Stephen King snob, which just makes me laugh now. I can't remember the details of why I decided to give one of his books a chance. The book I chose is "Christine", what an amazing book. I actually was looking through my books last night and saw the copy of that book that I read all those years ago. I picked it up and held it in my hand. I had to stop myself from jumping back into this book.
2) John Irving's "A Prayer For Owen Meany". Again this is a book I discovered at school, SLCC. I was at SLCC and looking to kill some time. I went to the school bookstore and they had "Owen Meany". I picked it up randomly and absolutely loved it. Easily one of the best books I've ever read in my life.
3) Tom Clancy's "The Hunt For Red October", another book I discovered at a school. I came across this book at Ricks College. Again I was just looking for a book to read. I read this book way before Tom Clancy was a household name. It's a book I just randomly picked up. Honestly I was blown away. This also happens to be one of the very few books where the movie is actually better. That's mainly because the ending of the movie ("You killed us!") is so much better than the ending of the book.
4) James Michener's "Chesapeake".
5) Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes". An extremely well written book about McCourt's devastating life growing up.
6) Dave Eggers "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius". See above. (Although his "The Wild Things" is brutally boring.) I found it especially poignant when Eggers went back to visit his childhood home.
Miranda Lambert's "The House That Built Me":
7) Dean Koontz's "Lightning". I'm sort of lukewarm on Koontz, but this book was fantastic.
8) Neal Stephenson "Anathem". This is for those of you who think that science fiction can't make great literature.
9) Garth Stein's "The Art of Racing In The Rain".
10) John Grogan's "Marley and Me". The movie wasn't as good as the book. However the movie had me in tears the final 15 minutes.
11) Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air".
12) Ursula Hegi "Stones From The River". Yes, this is Oprah Winfrey's first book club selection. And yes she has badly missed on some of the books she picked, but Hegi's novel is a classic.
13) Laura Hillenbrand's "Seabuiscuit".
14) Ivan Doig's "Dancing At The Rascal Fair". It's the first book of a trilogy, but can be read by itself.
15) Stieg Larson's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" trilogy, yes all three books.
16) Neil Strauss's "The Dirt", yes it's that good. Nikki Sixx's "The Heroin Diaries" is good, but very heartbreaking. Anthony Kiedis' "Scar Tissue" is virtually unreadable. I was glad I was able to donate my copy, hopefully someone enjoyed it.
17) Stephen Davis' "Hammer of the Gods", his Led Zeppelin biography. His biography of Jim Morrison, "Life, Death, Legend" is decent but not quite as good.
You'll notice about half of these books are split between fiction and non-fiction. It's more about the writing than the subject matter.
I'll be adding books that have meant a lot to me over my lifetime as I think of them.
themusicaddict
Braves Clinch, Orioles Struggle and Gagne Clings Desperately To The Lifeboat of Fame
Hello,
First of all, congratulations to the Atlanta Braves. Sadly they'll be the only one of my 5 teams to make the playoffs. (I've adopted the Orioles until the end of this playoffs, assuming they make the playoffs.) The Braves entered the 9th inning down 3-2. However clutch hitter Chipper Jones hit a double and later came home on Freddie Freeman's first career walk-off homer. The Braves prevailed 4-3 and were able to win by the barest of margins. That victory kept alive Atlanta's amazing winning streak when Kris Medlen starts the game. The Braves have now won 22 straight games that Medlen started. What's the more impressive streak, that or the Orioles winning 16 straight extra innings games? In all likelihood they'll play St. Louis in the one game Wild Card playoff. Now the Braves can set up their starting pitching for the playoffs, which hopefully will last longer than one wild card game.
After playing clutch baseball on the road, the Orioles have come home and struggled. They won their first home game on this 7 game home stand. Unfortunately they lost the last couple of games. Thanks to Minnesota beating New York last night, the Yankees lead the Orioles by 1.5 games in the AL East. Baltimore needs to focus more on qualifying for the the Wild Card, rather than winning the AL East. They'll need to win most of their baseball games to ensure they don't get caught. If the playoffs started today Baltimore would host the A's in the AL Wild Card. Of course that's meaningless as the A's have played one less game.
In the AL Wild Card race, the Angels are only 2 games back and the always dangerous Rays are only three games back. I thought the Rays were going to be eliminated from the playoffs by this point. However they just keep on coming. The season closing 3 game series in Tampa between Baltimore and the Rays could be very interesting. Although it has looked like the Orioles would make the playoffs the last several weeks, at this point there aren't any guarantees.
I'm looking forward to an amazing MLB playoffs.
And as to Eric Gagne's stupid comments about 80% of the Dodgers being on PEDs when he was a Dodger. I don't have any doubt that he's telling the truth. But I do have a couple of questions. First of all who cares? This is in his book only to sell copies. There's no other reason to share this information now. Is this information relevant, no not at all. Does anyone care? No. I find it laughable that someone thought it was worthwhile to write a biography of Eric Gagne. Even being a long-time Dodgers fan and these revelations I still have no desire to read this book.
Was anyone surprised that the NFL didn't change the result in the Packers-Seahawks game? Although the replacement refs clearly got the call wrong, it's no surprise a gutless corporate America entity wouldn't make the change. Making a change like that recalls moral courage and a desire to make things right. Those are things rarely found in corporate America. But of course the only criteria for making a decision in corporate America is money. Which is how the NFL got in this mess of replacement officials in the first place. Their only caring about the bottom line ironically could hurt that same bottom line.
It's hilarious to me that after some brutal calls over the weekend that the NFL and the NFLRA are all of a sudden close to an agreement. Start costing the NFL money, then all of a sudden they respond? That's not a coincidence, what it is is pathetic. That exposes the lie that the NFL cares about the players safety. Nobody believed that in the first place, but this extinguishes any doubt.
And just a quick word about the replacement officials, they've been put in an impossible position. And for the most part I think they've done a very respectable job. So please don't hate these men who are doing the best they can. Just a bunch of regular joes trying to support their families and get a bit closer to what probably for many is a dream of theirs. Thanks to the replacement refs for doing a relatively good job and showing a lot of class in an extremely difficult situation.
The NFL also needs to review the rule that the replay officials can't determine possession of the ball. Isn't that the point of replay in the first place? That whole final play of the Packers-Seahawks game was FUBAR.
themusicaddict
First of all, congratulations to the Atlanta Braves. Sadly they'll be the only one of my 5 teams to make the playoffs. (I've adopted the Orioles until the end of this playoffs, assuming they make the playoffs.) The Braves entered the 9th inning down 3-2. However clutch hitter Chipper Jones hit a double and later came home on Freddie Freeman's first career walk-off homer. The Braves prevailed 4-3 and were able to win by the barest of margins. That victory kept alive Atlanta's amazing winning streak when Kris Medlen starts the game. The Braves have now won 22 straight games that Medlen started. What's the more impressive streak, that or the Orioles winning 16 straight extra innings games? In all likelihood they'll play St. Louis in the one game Wild Card playoff. Now the Braves can set up their starting pitching for the playoffs, which hopefully will last longer than one wild card game.
After playing clutch baseball on the road, the Orioles have come home and struggled. They won their first home game on this 7 game home stand. Unfortunately they lost the last couple of games. Thanks to Minnesota beating New York last night, the Yankees lead the Orioles by 1.5 games in the AL East. Baltimore needs to focus more on qualifying for the the Wild Card, rather than winning the AL East. They'll need to win most of their baseball games to ensure they don't get caught. If the playoffs started today Baltimore would host the A's in the AL Wild Card. Of course that's meaningless as the A's have played one less game.
In the AL Wild Card race, the Angels are only 2 games back and the always dangerous Rays are only three games back. I thought the Rays were going to be eliminated from the playoffs by this point. However they just keep on coming. The season closing 3 game series in Tampa between Baltimore and the Rays could be very interesting. Although it has looked like the Orioles would make the playoffs the last several weeks, at this point there aren't any guarantees.
I'm looking forward to an amazing MLB playoffs.
And as to Eric Gagne's stupid comments about 80% of the Dodgers being on PEDs when he was a Dodger. I don't have any doubt that he's telling the truth. But I do have a couple of questions. First of all who cares? This is in his book only to sell copies. There's no other reason to share this information now. Is this information relevant, no not at all. Does anyone care? No. I find it laughable that someone thought it was worthwhile to write a biography of Eric Gagne. Even being a long-time Dodgers fan and these revelations I still have no desire to read this book.
Was anyone surprised that the NFL didn't change the result in the Packers-Seahawks game? Although the replacement refs clearly got the call wrong, it's no surprise a gutless corporate America entity wouldn't make the change. Making a change like that recalls moral courage and a desire to make things right. Those are things rarely found in corporate America. But of course the only criteria for making a decision in corporate America is money. Which is how the NFL got in this mess of replacement officials in the first place. Their only caring about the bottom line ironically could hurt that same bottom line.
It's hilarious to me that after some brutal calls over the weekend that the NFL and the NFLRA are all of a sudden close to an agreement. Start costing the NFL money, then all of a sudden they respond? That's not a coincidence, what it is is pathetic. That exposes the lie that the NFL cares about the players safety. Nobody believed that in the first place, but this extinguishes any doubt.
And just a quick word about the replacement officials, they've been put in an impossible position. And for the most part I think they've done a very respectable job. So please don't hate these men who are doing the best they can. Just a bunch of regular joes trying to support their families and get a bit closer to what probably for many is a dream of theirs. Thanks to the replacement refs for doing a relatively good job and showing a lot of class in an extremely difficult situation.
The NFL also needs to review the rule that the replay officials can't determine possession of the ball. Isn't that the point of replay in the first place? That whole final play of the Packers-Seahawks game was FUBAR.
themusicaddict
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
"Revolution" episode "Chained Heat"
Hello,
I ended up watching "Revolution's" premiere again last night. In flashbacks at the start of the episode we see the Matheson family, Ben, Rachel, Charlie and Danny. They are just living their normal lives until Ben comes home with some disturbing news. Ben seems to have told Rachel as she's aware of something. It's the night the power goes out. Elizabeth Mitchell, of "Lost" fame says to her husband Ben, "stop it Ben!". That makes me laugh as I'm sure that was something she said a few times in "Lost" to Ben Linus.
Anyway so what did you think about the"Revolution" episode last night? It was titled "Chained Heat"? Did that title make anyone else think of 70's blaxploitation films? Did you think "Chained Heat" was good? Or were you like me and thought it was kind of boring? Are you similar to me and find Miles Matheson's killing skills completely unbelievable? I'm willing to give fiction leeway, but "Revolution" has taken this leeway to ridiculous levels. Also was anyone surprised that Rachel Matheson is still alive? She's too big of star to be just given a small part. Also I'm kind of wondering if Ben is really dead as well. Who knows if that wasn't something to completely throw off the militia? You'd think that would require some forethought, but we already are giving this a large degree of leeway.
What's the secret of the locket, is the locket the source of power? How long does it's power last? Where did everyone get one from? In the first episode we were led to believe that only the "good" people had lockets. However in last night's episode Randall showed up at Grace's house. Why didn't we see his face, who is he really? What unfriendly purpose did he have with Grace? For someone being so isolated, she sure seems to have a lot of visitors. She's had three different visitors so far through two episodes.
Is Sebastian Monroe with his curly hair not one of the wimpiest villians ever? We see him kill someone, but it was only a cowering prisoner. That doesn't indicate toughness, it just indicates no soul. We're suppose to believe he's in charge of this powerful militia? Giancarlo Esposito as Captain Neville is a much more believable villain. Neville also has charisma, I completely believe that people would follow him. With these two characters seemingly switched, I wonder is Neville really in charge? He claims he has a family, but is that true? But yet he works for Monroe? Neville has killed several people already. That's so much more believable than Miles being this wizard of sword and fists.
Also did you like Daniella Alonso as Nora Clayton? Yet another strong female character in this show. That's a trend that I can get behind. I wouldn't mess with her. I did some research and found out she use to be a model, that's not a surprise as she's gorgeous.
That does bring me to my next point. I always love in these end of world dramas, the protagonists are usually the best looking survivors . And the woman aren't allowed to wear too many clothes. I'm not sure why they cast Graham Rogers as Danny Matheson. He's pretty, but he doesn't seem like someone that would survive 15 years in this world. And how convenient was it that Grace happened to have an asthma inhaler? There they are using that leeway again. Am I unconvinced because he has that Robert Pattinson look? He also acts as well as Pattinson, which means not at all. Danny is also petulant, is this a character we are suppose to care for?
What's the final goal for this show? Will they eventually figure out how to get the power back on? And if they do, what next? Presumably that would be the end of the show. But how many seasons can this show focus on the themes of getting the power back? Power referring to both electricity and who actually runs things. The next episode is titled "No Quarter", does that mean we will hear some Led Zeppelin? And if not, why not?
Some other random questions. With J.J. Abrams being involved, who else is waiting for another cast member of "Lost" to show up? For some reason I think we'll be seeing Terry O'Quinn (John Locke) soon. He played my favorite character on "Lost", slightly edging out Kate. Yes, I know that O'Quinn is on that ridiculous looking "666 Park Avenue", but how long can will that show last? For "Castle" and "Revolution" fans, which one will you watch first? They are on at the same time.
For now I'll continue to watch, I'm hoping that things will become more interesting.
Just a warning stay away from Fox tonight. They have two episodes of "New Girl", which is decent. It's one of those current comedies that causes you to laugh sometimes. Please don't watch "Ben and Kate", it's terrible. Also the new Mindy Kaling show looks lame.
themusicaddict
I ended up watching "Revolution's" premiere again last night. In flashbacks at the start of the episode we see the Matheson family, Ben, Rachel, Charlie and Danny. They are just living their normal lives until Ben comes home with some disturbing news. Ben seems to have told Rachel as she's aware of something. It's the night the power goes out. Elizabeth Mitchell, of "Lost" fame says to her husband Ben, "stop it Ben!". That makes me laugh as I'm sure that was something she said a few times in "Lost" to Ben Linus.
Anyway so what did you think about the"Revolution" episode last night? It was titled "Chained Heat"? Did that title make anyone else think of 70's blaxploitation films? Did you think "Chained Heat" was good? Or were you like me and thought it was kind of boring? Are you similar to me and find Miles Matheson's killing skills completely unbelievable? I'm willing to give fiction leeway, but "Revolution" has taken this leeway to ridiculous levels. Also was anyone surprised that Rachel Matheson is still alive? She's too big of star to be just given a small part. Also I'm kind of wondering if Ben is really dead as well. Who knows if that wasn't something to completely throw off the militia? You'd think that would require some forethought, but we already are giving this a large degree of leeway.
What's the secret of the locket, is the locket the source of power? How long does it's power last? Where did everyone get one from? In the first episode we were led to believe that only the "good" people had lockets. However in last night's episode Randall showed up at Grace's house. Why didn't we see his face, who is he really? What unfriendly purpose did he have with Grace? For someone being so isolated, she sure seems to have a lot of visitors. She's had three different visitors so far through two episodes.
Is Sebastian Monroe with his curly hair not one of the wimpiest villians ever? We see him kill someone, but it was only a cowering prisoner. That doesn't indicate toughness, it just indicates no soul. We're suppose to believe he's in charge of this powerful militia? Giancarlo Esposito as Captain Neville is a much more believable villain. Neville also has charisma, I completely believe that people would follow him. With these two characters seemingly switched, I wonder is Neville really in charge? He claims he has a family, but is that true? But yet he works for Monroe? Neville has killed several people already. That's so much more believable than Miles being this wizard of sword and fists.
Also did you like Daniella Alonso as Nora Clayton? Yet another strong female character in this show. That's a trend that I can get behind. I wouldn't mess with her. I did some research and found out she use to be a model, that's not a surprise as she's gorgeous.
That does bring me to my next point. I always love in these end of world dramas, the protagonists are usually the best looking survivors . And the woman aren't allowed to wear too many clothes. I'm not sure why they cast Graham Rogers as Danny Matheson. He's pretty, but he doesn't seem like someone that would survive 15 years in this world. And how convenient was it that Grace happened to have an asthma inhaler? There they are using that leeway again. Am I unconvinced because he has that Robert Pattinson look? He also acts as well as Pattinson, which means not at all. Danny is also petulant, is this a character we are suppose to care for?
What's the final goal for this show? Will they eventually figure out how to get the power back on? And if they do, what next? Presumably that would be the end of the show. But how many seasons can this show focus on the themes of getting the power back? Power referring to both electricity and who actually runs things. The next episode is titled "No Quarter", does that mean we will hear some Led Zeppelin? And if not, why not?
Some other random questions. With J.J. Abrams being involved, who else is waiting for another cast member of "Lost" to show up? For some reason I think we'll be seeing Terry O'Quinn (John Locke) soon. He played my favorite character on "Lost", slightly edging out Kate. Yes, I know that O'Quinn is on that ridiculous looking "666 Park Avenue", but how long can will that show last? For "Castle" and "Revolution" fans, which one will you watch first? They are on at the same time.
For now I'll continue to watch, I'm hoping that things will become more interesting.
Just a warning stay away from Fox tonight. They have two episodes of "New Girl", which is decent. It's one of those current comedies that causes you to laugh sometimes. Please don't watch "Ben and Kate", it's terrible. Also the new Mindy Kaling show looks lame.
themusicaddict
Monday, September 24, 2012
"Les Mis", "Revolution", "Hearts In Atlantis"
Hello,
I'm looking forward to "Les Miserables", which comes out this Christmas. I may even go see it opening day, Christmas falls on a Tuesday this year. I've seen "Les Mis" on the stage several times and have been looking forward to seeing it on the movie screen for a long time. The story is great and the music is even better. Honestly none of the stars excite me very much. When was the last time you went to see a Russell Crowe movie? Amanda Seyfried doesn't do much for me, although I did like her performance in "In Time". It seems that Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway are the only two relevant actors. But as ew.com states, the musical itself "is the biggest star". I couldn't agree more.
I'd also highly recommend to read Victor Hugo's full length novel. It's over 1200 pages, but it's worth the effort. If you are a Kindle owner, you can get "Les Mis" free right now. Unfortunately it's not the full Hugo classic, but it will give you the idea of the play.
Three months from tomorrow "Les Mis" will finally be in theatres.
Granted the trailer isn't that great, here it is:
Can the cast sing? See for yourself (Wait a second, Borat is in this movie?):
If the following clip doesn't give you goosebumps, then sadly "Les Mis" isn't for you:
My favorite of the above clip is at the 7:11 mark and for the next several seconds.
Another clip, part 2 of this concert.
Part 3 of this amazing 25th anniversary concert:
Tonight is the second episode of "Revolution" and I'm looking forward to it. It's been a couple of weeks since I saw the premiere. I've been debating whether I should watch the premiere again before watching tonight's episode. I think "Revolution" has a lot of promise. But I also thought the same thing about "Life On Mars" and "Flash Forward". Hopefully "Revolution" will have a more satisfying run. I do wonder how long it will take before they start falling back on cliches.
I'm also eagerly looking forward to the first episode of "The Last Resort" Thursday night. When the show seems to start out so intensely, how long can it maintain that level though? This is the trailer:
I've been reading Stephen King's "Hearts In Atlantis". It's a collection of 5 interconnected stories. The first story is "Low Men In Yellow Coats". If you read King's "Gunslinger" series you'll recognize the low men. Not the kind of people that you want to deal with. This 250+ page story combines everything that makes King's writing so good. First of all the story is creepy as hell. But besides that one really can relate to the characters. I immediately felt an affinity to Ted Brautigan and Bobby Garfield. I cheered for them through the whole story. I wasn't cheering for Liz Garfield though. However a necessary character to make the other characters fully drawn. Like any great writing I have all sorts of emotions about the characters. If you are a Stephen King fan and somehow haven't read this book, this would be a good time to do so. I also want to see the movie someday.
Currently I'm reading the second story in this collection. This short story is where the whole book gets it's name from- "Hearts In Atlantis".
themusicaddict
I'm looking forward to "Les Miserables", which comes out this Christmas. I may even go see it opening day, Christmas falls on a Tuesday this year. I've seen "Les Mis" on the stage several times and have been looking forward to seeing it on the movie screen for a long time. The story is great and the music is even better. Honestly none of the stars excite me very much. When was the last time you went to see a Russell Crowe movie? Amanda Seyfried doesn't do much for me, although I did like her performance in "In Time". It seems that Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway are the only two relevant actors. But as ew.com states, the musical itself "is the biggest star". I couldn't agree more.
I'd also highly recommend to read Victor Hugo's full length novel. It's over 1200 pages, but it's worth the effort. If you are a Kindle owner, you can get "Les Mis" free right now. Unfortunately it's not the full Hugo classic, but it will give you the idea of the play.
Three months from tomorrow "Les Mis" will finally be in theatres.
Granted the trailer isn't that great, here it is:
Can the cast sing? See for yourself (Wait a second, Borat is in this movie?):
If the following clip doesn't give you goosebumps, then sadly "Les Mis" isn't for you:
My favorite of the above clip is at the 7:11 mark and for the next several seconds.
Another clip, part 2 of this concert.
Part 3 of this amazing 25th anniversary concert:
Tonight is the second episode of "Revolution" and I'm looking forward to it. It's been a couple of weeks since I saw the premiere. I've been debating whether I should watch the premiere again before watching tonight's episode. I think "Revolution" has a lot of promise. But I also thought the same thing about "Life On Mars" and "Flash Forward". Hopefully "Revolution" will have a more satisfying run. I do wonder how long it will take before they start falling back on cliches.
I'm also eagerly looking forward to the first episode of "The Last Resort" Thursday night. When the show seems to start out so intensely, how long can it maintain that level though? This is the trailer:
I've been reading Stephen King's "Hearts In Atlantis". It's a collection of 5 interconnected stories. The first story is "Low Men In Yellow Coats". If you read King's "Gunslinger" series you'll recognize the low men. Not the kind of people that you want to deal with. This 250+ page story combines everything that makes King's writing so good. First of all the story is creepy as hell. But besides that one really can relate to the characters. I immediately felt an affinity to Ted Brautigan and Bobby Garfield. I cheered for them through the whole story. I wasn't cheering for Liz Garfield though. However a necessary character to make the other characters fully drawn. Like any great writing I have all sorts of emotions about the characters. If you are a Stephen King fan and somehow haven't read this book, this would be a good time to do so. I also want to see the movie someday.
Currently I'm reading the second story in this collection. This short story is where the whole book gets it's name from- "Hearts In Atlantis".
themusicaddict
Adrian Gonzalez Still Hits Home Runs?
Hello,
I saw a bit of the Sunday Night Baseball game last night. The game was Dodgers-Reds in Cincinnati. Dodgers pitching continues to be fantastic. It was good to see Clayton Kershaw pitching for LA. Some suggested that he was going to be out for the season. And perhaps if the Dodgers didn't have anything to play for he might not have pitched last night.
The most surprising thing about last night's game was that Adrian Gonzalez is still hitting home runs. He liked hitting that home run so much that he decided to hit a second home run later in the game. Gonzalez has now hit 3 home runs as a Dodger. He hit a home run in his first at bat as a Dodger and then two yesterday. Of course I do have to point out two caveats. The Reds had clinched the playoffs Saturday night and rested 4 of their starters in last night's game. Also Gonzalez has the number of the starting pitcher, Homer Bailey, he hit those home runs against last night. Homer is a terrible name for a pitcher don't ya think? Gonzalez has now hit 5 homers off of Homer in his career.
I hope Gonzalez's power surge last night is a sign of the way he's going to close out the season. I'm hoping that it isn't a fluke. I still don't think the Dodgers are going to make the playoffs, but I'd love to see their offense close out the season in style. That could give them something to build on next season.
According to ESPN, the Dodgers have a 4.5% of making the playoffs. However they trail St. Louis by 3 games and Milwaukee by a 1/2 game. They have to pass both of those teams to make the playoffs. I wouldn't say it's impossible, but it will be very difficult. Of course if this was last season, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Atlanta would have practically sewn up the Wild Card by now. Right now their magic number to officially earn a Wild Card bid is 2 games. It would be nice to see them actually do something in the playoffs this year. Let's send Chipper Jones off in style! Is Braves-Orioles to much to ask for in the World Series?
For the Pirates I predicted they'd close the season winning 3 of their last 11 games. Well they surprised me by winning the first of their final 11 games yesterday. They still have a .1% chance of making the playoffs, but that isn't going to happen. I hope that they can find a way to finish above .500 so that wouldn't be 20 seasons without the Pirates having a winning season.
The most exciting playoff race of them all remains the AL East. The Yankees had their 7 game winning streak ended yesterday, while the Orioles had their 6 game winning streak ended. The exciting AL East battle continues today. Baltimore hosts the Blue Jays in a double header today. Meanwhile the Yankees go on the road to play the Twins. If everyone breaks right today, the Orioles could lead the AL East at the end of the day.
Also keep your eye on the AL Wildcard, the two wildcard teams will come from the Orioles, Yankees and A's.
themusicaddict
I saw a bit of the Sunday Night Baseball game last night. The game was Dodgers-Reds in Cincinnati. Dodgers pitching continues to be fantastic. It was good to see Clayton Kershaw pitching for LA. Some suggested that he was going to be out for the season. And perhaps if the Dodgers didn't have anything to play for he might not have pitched last night.
The most surprising thing about last night's game was that Adrian Gonzalez is still hitting home runs. He liked hitting that home run so much that he decided to hit a second home run later in the game. Gonzalez has now hit 3 home runs as a Dodger. He hit a home run in his first at bat as a Dodger and then two yesterday. Of course I do have to point out two caveats. The Reds had clinched the playoffs Saturday night and rested 4 of their starters in last night's game. Also Gonzalez has the number of the starting pitcher, Homer Bailey, he hit those home runs against last night. Homer is a terrible name for a pitcher don't ya think? Gonzalez has now hit 5 homers off of Homer in his career.
I hope Gonzalez's power surge last night is a sign of the way he's going to close out the season. I'm hoping that it isn't a fluke. I still don't think the Dodgers are going to make the playoffs, but I'd love to see their offense close out the season in style. That could give them something to build on next season.
According to ESPN, the Dodgers have a 4.5% of making the playoffs. However they trail St. Louis by 3 games and Milwaukee by a 1/2 game. They have to pass both of those teams to make the playoffs. I wouldn't say it's impossible, but it will be very difficult. Of course if this was last season, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Atlanta would have practically sewn up the Wild Card by now. Right now their magic number to officially earn a Wild Card bid is 2 games. It would be nice to see them actually do something in the playoffs this year. Let's send Chipper Jones off in style! Is Braves-Orioles to much to ask for in the World Series?
For the Pirates I predicted they'd close the season winning 3 of their last 11 games. Well they surprised me by winning the first of their final 11 games yesterday. They still have a .1% chance of making the playoffs, but that isn't going to happen. I hope that they can find a way to finish above .500 so that wouldn't be 20 seasons without the Pirates having a winning season.
The most exciting playoff race of them all remains the AL East. The Yankees had their 7 game winning streak ended yesterday, while the Orioles had their 6 game winning streak ended. The exciting AL East battle continues today. Baltimore hosts the Blue Jays in a double header today. Meanwhile the Yankees go on the road to play the Twins. If everyone breaks right today, the Orioles could lead the AL East at the end of the day.
Also keep your eye on the AL Wildcard, the two wildcard teams will come from the Orioles, Yankees and A's.
themusicaddict
Sunday, September 23, 2012
NFL Early Games Dallas-Tampa Bay, San Francisco-Minnesota
Hello,
Dallas will start it's home season today by welcoming the 1-1 Bucs. Which Dallas team will show up? Will it be the team that looked like world beaters against the Giants? Or will it be the Cowboys who were completely dominated by the Seahawks last week? Will the Romocoaster be going uphill or downhill this week? Will Dez Bryant actually be useful this week? Will Jerry Jones have his son-in-law clean his glasses for him?
The Cowboys seemed to be in the middle of their two previous games. The Romocoaster had both an up and down game. On the 4th play of the game Romo got picked by Tampa Bay. The Bucs were able to take advantage and scored a touchdown, they took an early 7-0 lead. Romo was later responsible for 2 more turnovers. That's pretty much par for the course for Romo. What was concerning though was that Romo was sacked 4 times. That's one of the things that's suppose to make him such a "great" qb is his escapability and is ability to turn broken plays into great plays. Romo did complete 25 of 39 passes for 283 yards. Romo had a very average quarterback rating of 75.1. He didn't have any touchdown passes.
Romo is what he is. He's a slightly above average quarterback who will never be in the same league as Drew Brees, Tom Brady or the Manning brothers. He will remain at this same level the rest of his career, until his skills finally start to deteriorate. I wish the Cowboys could trade him straight up to the Redskins for RG3. But I think the Redskins are smarter than that.
In what sounds like it was an ugly and boring game, the Cowboys prevailed 16-10. (Please don't sign Romo to an extension, he'll never lead the Cowboys to the Super Bowl. Most of the time he can't even lead them to the playoffs.)
Tampa Bay's defense was very good, but quarterback Josh Freeman was brutal. He had a much worse game than Romo.
Dallas next plays at home against the Bears on Monday Night Football. Two teams who have a lot in common. Neither are very flashy and both wear the blue collar imprint. Also both teams have quarterbacks who play to the level of their reputations rarely.
Another early game I thought would be intriguing was San Francisco-Minnesota. This early afternoon matchup was played in Minnesota. Does anyone think that that will help the Vikings win? Will Adrian Peterson return to his early career form? Will Alex Smith continue his excellent early season play? Will the 49ers continue their excellent early season play? Will the 49ers win by more than 3 touchdowns? Am I the only one who thinks this 49ers team feels like a team of destiny?
The team of destiny was exposed a bit today. I was very surprised how good the Vikings looked today. Adrian Peterson rushed for a tough 86 yards on 25 carries. Christian Ponder was the surprise though. He was 21 of 35 for 198 yards. He threw for 2 touchdowns and had many nice completions. Ponder showed a lot of good things today. He also wasn't sacked or threw any interceptions. Ponder had a quarterback rating of 94.7.
Alex Smith had the type of game that the 49ers want out of him. They want him to not try and do too much, to play in control and to not lose the game. He did what his role specifies today. He was 24 of 35 for 204 yards and one touchdown pass. He did throw one interception and was sacked 3 times. His qb rating was 81.1.
San Francisco next week flies cross country to take on team drama, the New York Jets. I love that the Jets seem to be limiting Tim Tebow in their play calling. Although Mark Sanchez didn't have a great game either, he only had a quarterback rating of 58.2. It seems like the Jets don't have a starting quarterback, instead they have two backups.
themusicaddict
Dallas will start it's home season today by welcoming the 1-1 Bucs. Which Dallas team will show up? Will it be the team that looked like world beaters against the Giants? Or will it be the Cowboys who were completely dominated by the Seahawks last week? Will the Romocoaster be going uphill or downhill this week? Will Dez Bryant actually be useful this week? Will Jerry Jones have his son-in-law clean his glasses for him?
The Cowboys seemed to be in the middle of their two previous games. The Romocoaster had both an up and down game. On the 4th play of the game Romo got picked by Tampa Bay. The Bucs were able to take advantage and scored a touchdown, they took an early 7-0 lead. Romo was later responsible for 2 more turnovers. That's pretty much par for the course for Romo. What was concerning though was that Romo was sacked 4 times. That's one of the things that's suppose to make him such a "great" qb is his escapability and is ability to turn broken plays into great plays. Romo did complete 25 of 39 passes for 283 yards. Romo had a very average quarterback rating of 75.1. He didn't have any touchdown passes.
Romo is what he is. He's a slightly above average quarterback who will never be in the same league as Drew Brees, Tom Brady or the Manning brothers. He will remain at this same level the rest of his career, until his skills finally start to deteriorate. I wish the Cowboys could trade him straight up to the Redskins for RG3. But I think the Redskins are smarter than that.
In what sounds like it was an ugly and boring game, the Cowboys prevailed 16-10. (Please don't sign Romo to an extension, he'll never lead the Cowboys to the Super Bowl. Most of the time he can't even lead them to the playoffs.)
Tampa Bay's defense was very good, but quarterback Josh Freeman was brutal. He had a much worse game than Romo.
Dallas next plays at home against the Bears on Monday Night Football. Two teams who have a lot in common. Neither are very flashy and both wear the blue collar imprint. Also both teams have quarterbacks who play to the level of their reputations rarely.
Another early game I thought would be intriguing was San Francisco-Minnesota. This early afternoon matchup was played in Minnesota. Does anyone think that that will help the Vikings win? Will Adrian Peterson return to his early career form? Will Alex Smith continue his excellent early season play? Will the 49ers continue their excellent early season play? Will the 49ers win by more than 3 touchdowns? Am I the only one who thinks this 49ers team feels like a team of destiny?
The team of destiny was exposed a bit today. I was very surprised how good the Vikings looked today. Adrian Peterson rushed for a tough 86 yards on 25 carries. Christian Ponder was the surprise though. He was 21 of 35 for 198 yards. He threw for 2 touchdowns and had many nice completions. Ponder showed a lot of good things today. He also wasn't sacked or threw any interceptions. Ponder had a quarterback rating of 94.7.
Alex Smith had the type of game that the 49ers want out of him. They want him to not try and do too much, to play in control and to not lose the game. He did what his role specifies today. He was 24 of 35 for 204 yards and one touchdown pass. He did throw one interception and was sacked 3 times. His qb rating was 81.1.
San Francisco next week flies cross country to take on team drama, the New York Jets. I love that the Jets seem to be limiting Tim Tebow in their play calling. Although Mark Sanchez didn't have a great game either, he only had a quarterback rating of 58.2. It seems like the Jets don't have a starting quarterback, instead they have two backups.
themusicaddict
Dodgers Continue To Be Atrocious, Pirates Are Now Downright Miserable
Hello,
The AL East currently have two teams who are showing how to play for the right to make the playoffs. Both the Orioles and Yankees have won 9 of their last 11 games. Both are winning on the road, winning at home, winning in 9 innings and winning in extra-innings. Both are also fighting through all sorts of adversity. Both are getting contributions from role players. Who knew that Raul Ibanez was still in the major leagues? Deservedly so it looks like both teams will make the playoffs. The only question now is who will win the AL East and who'll be in the Wild Card game? For the Orioles no rest for the weary. They play Sunday afternoon and then go home for a doubleheader tomorrow. They don't get their next day off until Thursday. Then barring weather complications, they play 6 straight days to close out the season. And I wouldn't be surprised if they also play on Thursday, October 4th.
Those two teams are the prime examples of how to play in the clutch, two teams not showing that are the Dodgers and Pirates. The Dodgers continue to play like crap. LA has already announced that Don Mattingly would be back as manager for next season. Well why wouldn't he be? The Dodgers anemic play of late isn't his fault, the crappy play is all on their overpaid players. It's hard to believe this is the same team that started out 9-1. That Dodgers team deserved to make the playoffs, this Dodgers team doesn't deserve to make the playoffs.
Their offense continues to be anemic, they've only scored 29 runs over their last 10 games. A quarter of a billion dollars just doesn't go as far as it used to. With only scoring 29 runs in their last 10 games, it should be no surprise they've only won 4 of those games. Lost in the fact that LA's offense has been offensively bad, is how good their pitching is. They've only given up 38 runs over their last 10 games. Dodgers starting pitching has been decimated by injuries. Ted Lilly, Chad Billingsley are already out for the season. It's also highly likely that Clayton Kershaw will miss the rest of the season.
Tonight's Sunday Night Baseball game will be Cincinnati-LA, I'm guessing about 6 people will be turning in for that.
What the hell has happened to the Pirates? In mid-July they were coasting, battling with the Red about who was going to lead the NL Central. Just a couple of months later, Pittsburgh has choked and gagged their way to 4th place in the NL Central. Pittsburgh can't go any lower in the Central as that's the same division as the terrible Cubs and the historically bad Astros. Pittsburgh has played so terribly of late, they've only been able to score 2 runs against cellar dwelling Houston the last two days. That's the same Astros team that has won less than 1/3rd of their games this season and who are the worst team in MLB. Compared to the Pirates though the Astros are hot of late. Houston has won 5 of their last 10 games.
Pittsburgh have lost 8 of their last 10 games and 5 in a row. They've fallen to 74-77 on the season. At one point it looked like a sure thing that they would finally finish above .500 this season. That would have been the first time in 20 years. Unfortunately even that meager goal looks out of reach now. The Pirates play 11 more games this season. The next five games are on the road and then they close the season at home. Unfortunately for them they'll be playing 3 games each against playoff bound Atlanta and Cincinnati. I predict Pittsburgh will finish 3-8 and end the season with a 77-85 record.
But hopefully that will serve as a motivation to have a great offseason. Hopefully Pittsburgh's front office can add one more solid bat and one more solid starter.
themusicaddict
The AL East currently have two teams who are showing how to play for the right to make the playoffs. Both the Orioles and Yankees have won 9 of their last 11 games. Both are winning on the road, winning at home, winning in 9 innings and winning in extra-innings. Both are also fighting through all sorts of adversity. Both are getting contributions from role players. Who knew that Raul Ibanez was still in the major leagues? Deservedly so it looks like both teams will make the playoffs. The only question now is who will win the AL East and who'll be in the Wild Card game? For the Orioles no rest for the weary. They play Sunday afternoon and then go home for a doubleheader tomorrow. They don't get their next day off until Thursday. Then barring weather complications, they play 6 straight days to close out the season. And I wouldn't be surprised if they also play on Thursday, October 4th.
Those two teams are the prime examples of how to play in the clutch, two teams not showing that are the Dodgers and Pirates. The Dodgers continue to play like crap. LA has already announced that Don Mattingly would be back as manager for next season. Well why wouldn't he be? The Dodgers anemic play of late isn't his fault, the crappy play is all on their overpaid players. It's hard to believe this is the same team that started out 9-1. That Dodgers team deserved to make the playoffs, this Dodgers team doesn't deserve to make the playoffs.
Their offense continues to be anemic, they've only scored 29 runs over their last 10 games. A quarter of a billion dollars just doesn't go as far as it used to. With only scoring 29 runs in their last 10 games, it should be no surprise they've only won 4 of those games. Lost in the fact that LA's offense has been offensively bad, is how good their pitching is. They've only given up 38 runs over their last 10 games. Dodgers starting pitching has been decimated by injuries. Ted Lilly, Chad Billingsley are already out for the season. It's also highly likely that Clayton Kershaw will miss the rest of the season.
Tonight's Sunday Night Baseball game will be Cincinnati-LA, I'm guessing about 6 people will be turning in for that.
What the hell has happened to the Pirates? In mid-July they were coasting, battling with the Red about who was going to lead the NL Central. Just a couple of months later, Pittsburgh has choked and gagged their way to 4th place in the NL Central. Pittsburgh can't go any lower in the Central as that's the same division as the terrible Cubs and the historically bad Astros. Pittsburgh has played so terribly of late, they've only been able to score 2 runs against cellar dwelling Houston the last two days. That's the same Astros team that has won less than 1/3rd of their games this season and who are the worst team in MLB. Compared to the Pirates though the Astros are hot of late. Houston has won 5 of their last 10 games.
Pittsburgh have lost 8 of their last 10 games and 5 in a row. They've fallen to 74-77 on the season. At one point it looked like a sure thing that they would finally finish above .500 this season. That would have been the first time in 20 years. Unfortunately even that meager goal looks out of reach now. The Pirates play 11 more games this season. The next five games are on the road and then they close the season at home. Unfortunately for them they'll be playing 3 games each against playoff bound Atlanta and Cincinnati. I predict Pittsburgh will finish 3-8 and end the season with a 77-85 record.
But hopefully that will serve as a motivation to have a great offseason. Hopefully Pittsburgh's front office can add one more solid bat and one more solid starter.
themusicaddict
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Greatest Songs of the last 1, 5, 10, 15, 25, 56 years?
Hello,
Here's another music blog for those of you who may have had too many sporting topics of late.
Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" was released in 1956. This song must have been quite a shock when people heard it on the radio for the first time. Is "Hound Dog" the best song of the last 56 years?
Is George Jones "He Stopped Loving Her Today" one of the best songs of the last 30+ years?
How about Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines" for one of the best song of the last 30 years. ("The Message" is over rated.)
Is this the best song of the last 25 years? The Smith's "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out". This song is a classic, but beware of really bad dancing by white people.
Or is the Cure's "Just Like Heaven" the best song of the last 25 years? Definitely one of the best beginnings of a song ever, this and Ozzy's "Crazy Train".
How about Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" as one of the best songs of the last 25+ years:
I would put Prince's "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" in contention as well. But until he stops being so restrictive about his music on youtube, piss on him.
To give you some perspective about the last time the Orioles made the playoffs, these were five of the biggest songs of 1997. Which one of these of was the best song of the last 15 years?
Leann Rimes "How Do I Live": (for the happy lovers)
Third Eye Blind "Semi-Charmed Life":
Paula Cole's "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?":
Aqua's "Barbie Girl":
The Spice Girls "2 Becomes 1". I'm not a big fan of The Spice Girls, but I'm a sucker for an amazing ballad. Their inclusion as one of the great British acts at the closing ceremonies of the London Summer Games was more than a bit questionable.
Is this the best song of the last 10 years? The Arctic Monkey's "I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor". This is one of the catchiest songs of all time.
Is this one of the best songs of the last 5 years? Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance":
How about Amy Winehouse's "You Know That I'm No Good":
Is this the best song in the last two years? The amazing Adele's "Rolling In The Deep":
How about Havana Brown's "We Own The Night":
How about Rihanna and Calvin Harris' "We Found Love". I love me some Rihanna.
Which is the best song of 2012? Nicki Minaj's "Starships":
Maroon 5 and some lame rapper's "Payphone":
Adele's "Rumor Has It":
themusicaddict
Here's another music blog for those of you who may have had too many sporting topics of late.
Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" was released in 1956. This song must have been quite a shock when people heard it on the radio for the first time. Is "Hound Dog" the best song of the last 56 years?
Is George Jones "He Stopped Loving Her Today" one of the best songs of the last 30+ years?
How about Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines" for one of the best song of the last 30 years. ("The Message" is over rated.)
Is this the best song of the last 25 years? The Smith's "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out". This song is a classic, but beware of really bad dancing by white people.
Or is the Cure's "Just Like Heaven" the best song of the last 25 years? Definitely one of the best beginnings of a song ever, this and Ozzy's "Crazy Train".
How about Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" as one of the best songs of the last 25+ years:
I would put Prince's "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" in contention as well. But until he stops being so restrictive about his music on youtube, piss on him.
To give you some perspective about the last time the Orioles made the playoffs, these were five of the biggest songs of 1997. Which one of these of was the best song of the last 15 years?
Leann Rimes "How Do I Live": (for the happy lovers)
Third Eye Blind "Semi-Charmed Life":
Paula Cole's "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?":
Aqua's "Barbie Girl":
The Spice Girls "2 Becomes 1". I'm not a big fan of The Spice Girls, but I'm a sucker for an amazing ballad. Their inclusion as one of the great British acts at the closing ceremonies of the London Summer Games was more than a bit questionable.
Is this the best song of the last 10 years? The Arctic Monkey's "I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor". This is one of the catchiest songs of all time.
Is this one of the best songs of the last 5 years? Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance":
How about Amy Winehouse's "You Know That I'm No Good":
Is this the best song in the last two years? The amazing Adele's "Rolling In The Deep":
How about Havana Brown's "We Own The Night":
How about Rihanna and Calvin Harris' "We Found Love". I love me some Rihanna.
Which is the best song of 2012? Nicki Minaj's "Starships":
Maroon 5 and some lame rapper's "Payphone":
Adele's "Rumor Has It":
themusicaddict
The AL East Race Is Shaping Up As A Race For The Ages, Go Orioles!
Hello,
The AL East is shaping up as a race for the ages. In mid-July it looked like the Yankeess were going to run away from the rest of the division. However since then the Yankees have stumbled their way back to the pack. It's been a tight race the last few weeks. Yesterday the Yankees and the Orioles won, both teams have won 8 of their last 10 games. Both teams are both on fire, responding with clutch hitting and pitching. As I started writing this blog, both the Orioles and the Yankees are leading their Saturday afternoon games. Both games started at virtually the same time. Both games ended up going into extra-innings. It seems like they are playing anything you can do, I can do better. Only one thing would make this two team death match better. That is if both teams played each other in the final series of the season. However they've already played all their games against each other this regular season.
Honestly thanks to the AL Wild Card, it looks like both teams will make the playoffs. However the team that doesn't win the AL East most likely will have to host the Oakland A's in the one game AL Wild Card game.
But through the final 11 games, who are you going to cheer for? Cheering for the Yanks would be like cheering for Goliath against David. I don't like seeing my Red Sox not make the playoffs, but it's not all bad. The more Boston loses, the less likely it is for Bobby Valentine to be brought back next season. I'd be very surprised if there's any scenario in which he comes back next season. It's also nice to have some fresh blood in the playoff race, the Orioles haven't made the playoffs in 15 years. My life was much different 15 years ago, how about you? There's probably only a few Orioles diehards that remember the last time the Orioles made the playoffs. In contrast, the Yanks made the playoffs the last couple of years and won the World Series only two years ago. You could say I'm tired of seeing them make the playoffs every year. That was the good thing about Goliath. Once he died we didn't have to hear about him every year going forward.
By the way Baltimore lost in the 1997 ALCS to the Indians. After that season, the Orioles haven't reached the playoffs again. And most of the time, they haven't even got close to the postseason.
The Orioles have struck first, they played in yet another extra-inning game. And they've been gold in extra inning games this season, they've now won 16 straight. Today's game went to 12 innings at Fenway Park. Then in the top of the 12th inning the Orioles came up with 3 runs. Their winning rally was powered by the ageless Jim Thome. He hit a go ahead double in his first game in almost two months. (Thanks again to espn.com.) Orioles closer Jim Johnson broke his own team record by earning his 47th save. The Red Sox showed some heart. But let's be honest at this point, they have nothing to play for. With Baltimore's win that put a little extra pressure on the Yankees. For the time being Baltimore only trails the Yanks by one-half game in the AL East.
The Yankees are playing at home against the A's, a team who are playing for their playoff lives. This game has also gone into the extra innings. Both teams are responding with the heart of champions. I thought the A's had put the game out of reach by scoring 4 home runs in the top of the 13th, they hit 3 home runs in the top of that inning. However the Yankees responded by how they always seem to. They scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 13th to tie the game at 9.
The Yankees loaded the bases with only one out in the bottom of the 14th inning. That proved too much for the A's to overcome. The Yanks were able to push across the winning run.
That means New York remains 1 game ahead of the Orioles in the AL East. Both teams have won 9 of their last 11 games.
Go Orioles!
themusicaddict
The AL East is shaping up as a race for the ages. In mid-July it looked like the Yankeess were going to run away from the rest of the division. However since then the Yankees have stumbled their way back to the pack. It's been a tight race the last few weeks. Yesterday the Yankees and the Orioles won, both teams have won 8 of their last 10 games. Both teams are both on fire, responding with clutch hitting and pitching. As I started writing this blog, both the Orioles and the Yankees are leading their Saturday afternoon games. Both games started at virtually the same time. Both games ended up going into extra-innings. It seems like they are playing anything you can do, I can do better. Only one thing would make this two team death match better. That is if both teams played each other in the final series of the season. However they've already played all their games against each other this regular season.
Honestly thanks to the AL Wild Card, it looks like both teams will make the playoffs. However the team that doesn't win the AL East most likely will have to host the Oakland A's in the one game AL Wild Card game.
But through the final 11 games, who are you going to cheer for? Cheering for the Yanks would be like cheering for Goliath against David. I don't like seeing my Red Sox not make the playoffs, but it's not all bad. The more Boston loses, the less likely it is for Bobby Valentine to be brought back next season. I'd be very surprised if there's any scenario in which he comes back next season. It's also nice to have some fresh blood in the playoff race, the Orioles haven't made the playoffs in 15 years. My life was much different 15 years ago, how about you? There's probably only a few Orioles diehards that remember the last time the Orioles made the playoffs. In contrast, the Yanks made the playoffs the last couple of years and won the World Series only two years ago. You could say I'm tired of seeing them make the playoffs every year. That was the good thing about Goliath. Once he died we didn't have to hear about him every year going forward.
By the way Baltimore lost in the 1997 ALCS to the Indians. After that season, the Orioles haven't reached the playoffs again. And most of the time, they haven't even got close to the postseason.
The Orioles have struck first, they played in yet another extra-inning game. And they've been gold in extra inning games this season, they've now won 16 straight. Today's game went to 12 innings at Fenway Park. Then in the top of the 12th inning the Orioles came up with 3 runs. Their winning rally was powered by the ageless Jim Thome. He hit a go ahead double in his first game in almost two months. (Thanks again to espn.com.) Orioles closer Jim Johnson broke his own team record by earning his 47th save. The Red Sox showed some heart. But let's be honest at this point, they have nothing to play for. With Baltimore's win that put a little extra pressure on the Yankees. For the time being Baltimore only trails the Yanks by one-half game in the AL East.
The Yankees are playing at home against the A's, a team who are playing for their playoff lives. This game has also gone into the extra innings. Both teams are responding with the heart of champions. I thought the A's had put the game out of reach by scoring 4 home runs in the top of the 13th, they hit 3 home runs in the top of that inning. However the Yankees responded by how they always seem to. They scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 13th to tie the game at 9.
The Yankees loaded the bases with only one out in the bottom of the 14th inning. That proved too much for the A's to overcome. The Yanks were able to push across the winning run.
That means New York remains 1 game ahead of the Orioles in the AL East. Both teams have won 9 of their last 11 games.
Go Orioles!
themusicaddict
Friday, September 21, 2012
Listen To Green Day's "Uno" Now (Updated 9/22)
Hello,
If you have a Facebook account and will agree to sign up to one of their apps you can listen to the new Green Day CD now. The CD is titled "UNO!", it will be released this Tuesday. I'm listened to it twice and I quite liked it. This is the first of 3 CDs that Green Day will be releasing over the next few months. "UNO!" is released Tuesday, "Dos!" is out on November 13th and "Tres!" will be released on January 15th. Each CD features a picture of one of the three main members of Green Day.
To listen to it now, sign into Facebook. Type "Green Day" in the search box and the official Green Day page comes up. Click to listen to "UNO!" and agree to use the app that comes up. You can always get rid of that app later. Then click on the play arrow and enjoy.
Sadly like Pink's new CD "The Truth About Love", Green Day uses the f-bomb way too often. I prefer these great musicians to come up with great songs without resorting to the crutch of the f-bomb. Lowest common denominator thinking isn't ever good.
themusicaddict
If you have a Facebook account and will agree to sign up to one of their apps you can listen to the new Green Day CD now. The CD is titled "UNO!", it will be released this Tuesday. I'm listened to it twice and I quite liked it. This is the first of 3 CDs that Green Day will be releasing over the next few months. "UNO!" is released Tuesday, "Dos!" is out on November 13th and "Tres!" will be released on January 15th. Each CD features a picture of one of the three main members of Green Day.
To listen to it now, sign into Facebook. Type "Green Day" in the search box and the official Green Day page comes up. Click to listen to "UNO!" and agree to use the app that comes up. You can always get rid of that app later. Then click on the play arrow and enjoy.
Sadly like Pink's new CD "The Truth About Love", Green Day uses the f-bomb way too often. I prefer these great musicians to come up with great songs without resorting to the crutch of the f-bomb. Lowest common denominator thinking isn't ever good.
themusicaddict
Thursday, September 20, 2012
BYU's Complete Collapse. Time To Prepare For The Future: Taysom Hill
Hello,
I want to start this blog off positively. A huge thumbs up to BYU's defense, they were amazing tonight. They were especially impressive when they stopped Boise State from scoring from 1st and goal on the one yard line in the fourth quarter. That gave BYU a chance to later potentially tie the game. BYU's very tough defense only gave up 261 yards to the Broncos. Let's be honest this BSU team is nowhere near as good as their teams of the past few years. In two of their three games BSU hasn't scored an offensive touchdown. Anyway back to BYU their special teams played pretty well also. Too bad the offensive side of the team was truly putrid. Bronco Mendenhall didn't have a great game either.
Going for a two point conversion when your offense looked awful all night long and using up all the timeouts in the second half.
How in the hell does BYU get to the point where their starting quarterback is Riley Nelson? Granted he's better than Jake Heaps, but he's still a below average college quarterback. He had one of the worst performances of any BYU quarterback ever tonight. He completed 4 of 9 passes for 21 yards and 3 interceptions. In other words he completed one less pass to BSU than to his own team. He also had a fumble. One of Nelson's many weaknesses is his carelessness with the ball. When he gets ready to pass I always hold my breath. He might complete it to his own team or he might get intercepted. That was a horrific throw that he threw to Michael Atkinson, but it was a nice run by Atkinson.
Thank you Riley for a decent season last year, a 10 win season and a bowl victory. But let's be honest the Cougars played the softest schedule by almost any team in the nation last season. Also thank you for being there to clean up after the debacle of Jake Heaps. But it's time to let Taysom Hill take over the reins now. No matter how bad it gets for him, let's see if he can be a starting quarterback. Hopefully he can at least perform at the level of Max Hall. If things work out maybe at the level of John Beck. It's time BYU has another quarterback that lives up their quarterback legacy.
I always hate when a team uses their timeouts early. BSU running out the final three minutes of the game last night is exactly why. Why did BYU use all three of their timeouts so quickly? If it was me at coach and it's either a 5 yard penalty or the loss of a timeout, I would say keep the timeout. The lack of timeouts in the final three minutes of the game haunted the Cougars. Once BSU got that first first down on the last possession, that game was over. If BYU still had two timeouts left, that would have made all the difference in the world.
Also why did Bronco Mendenhall decide to go for a two point conversion after BYU scored their only touchdown? With BSU not trusting their kicker, wouldn't you want to get the PAT and hopefully force the game into overtime. Especially when your defense was as stellar as it was tonight. Mendenhall must have had some magic BSU pixie dust on him. He got too cute and went for a two pointer. As my kids say: Fail! Allegedly a sign of BYU's teams is poise and discipline. When are we going to see that? When are they going to stop committing so many penalties. This team looks very sloppy. I hope we see BYU's alleged discipline soon. BYU didn't help themselves by having 8 penalties for 64 yards.
Of course BYU's offense was brutal tonight, you know things are going bad when I'd like to see a punt on 3rd down.
BYU's BCS buster season is obviously over, although realistic Cougar fans never really expected this team to be a BCS buster.
BYU is now 2-2 and returns to LaVell Edwards Stadium to play what will likely be 1-2 Hawaii. The Rainbow Warriors aren't a good team but either is BYU. That could be another ugly game. Tonight's 7-6 loss was one of the ugliest games in BYU history. This team needs to take a couple of days off and then start over. They desperately need to work on the fundamentals and find a way to lessen their penalties.
theveryirritatedmusicaddict
I want to start this blog off positively. A huge thumbs up to BYU's defense, they were amazing tonight. They were especially impressive when they stopped Boise State from scoring from 1st and goal on the one yard line in the fourth quarter. That gave BYU a chance to later potentially tie the game. BYU's very tough defense only gave up 261 yards to the Broncos. Let's be honest this BSU team is nowhere near as good as their teams of the past few years. In two of their three games BSU hasn't scored an offensive touchdown. Anyway back to BYU their special teams played pretty well also. Too bad the offensive side of the team was truly putrid. Bronco Mendenhall didn't have a great game either.
Going for a two point conversion when your offense looked awful all night long and using up all the timeouts in the second half.
How in the hell does BYU get to the point where their starting quarterback is Riley Nelson? Granted he's better than Jake Heaps, but he's still a below average college quarterback. He had one of the worst performances of any BYU quarterback ever tonight. He completed 4 of 9 passes for 21 yards and 3 interceptions. In other words he completed one less pass to BSU than to his own team. He also had a fumble. One of Nelson's many weaknesses is his carelessness with the ball. When he gets ready to pass I always hold my breath. He might complete it to his own team or he might get intercepted. That was a horrific throw that he threw to Michael Atkinson, but it was a nice run by Atkinson.
Thank you Riley for a decent season last year, a 10 win season and a bowl victory. But let's be honest the Cougars played the softest schedule by almost any team in the nation last season. Also thank you for being there to clean up after the debacle of Jake Heaps. But it's time to let Taysom Hill take over the reins now. No matter how bad it gets for him, let's see if he can be a starting quarterback. Hopefully he can at least perform at the level of Max Hall. If things work out maybe at the level of John Beck. It's time BYU has another quarterback that lives up their quarterback legacy.
I always hate when a team uses their timeouts early. BSU running out the final three minutes of the game last night is exactly why. Why did BYU use all three of their timeouts so quickly? If it was me at coach and it's either a 5 yard penalty or the loss of a timeout, I would say keep the timeout. The lack of timeouts in the final three minutes of the game haunted the Cougars. Once BSU got that first first down on the last possession, that game was over. If BYU still had two timeouts left, that would have made all the difference in the world.
Also why did Bronco Mendenhall decide to go for a two point conversion after BYU scored their only touchdown? With BSU not trusting their kicker, wouldn't you want to get the PAT and hopefully force the game into overtime. Especially when your defense was as stellar as it was tonight. Mendenhall must have had some magic BSU pixie dust on him. He got too cute and went for a two pointer. As my kids say: Fail! Allegedly a sign of BYU's teams is poise and discipline. When are we going to see that? When are they going to stop committing so many penalties. This team looks very sloppy. I hope we see BYU's alleged discipline soon. BYU didn't help themselves by having 8 penalties for 64 yards.
Of course BYU's offense was brutal tonight, you know things are going bad when I'd like to see a punt on 3rd down.
BYU's BCS buster season is obviously over, although realistic Cougar fans never really expected this team to be a BCS buster.
BYU is now 2-2 and returns to LaVell Edwards Stadium to play what will likely be 1-2 Hawaii. The Rainbow Warriors aren't a good team but either is BYU. That could be another ugly game. Tonight's 7-6 loss was one of the ugliest games in BYU history. This team needs to take a couple of days off and then start over. They desperately need to work on the fundamentals and find a way to lessen their penalties.
theveryirritatedmusicaddict
The Orioles Train Continues To Steam Ahead & The Unstoppable Kris Medlen
Hello,
The Orioles went into extra innings again last night. If you've followed the Orioles at all this season, you should know how that ended. Yes the Orioles won, this is their 15th straight extra-innings victory. With this victory the Orioles continued the two most exciting playoff races this season. Both the battle for the AL East and the Al Wild Card have been the most exciting races this season. Both races look like they could go down to the final day.
Powered by Adam Jones two run home run, the Orioles vanquished the Mariners in 11 innings. The Orioles were able to sweep the Mariners in Seattle. That's a good sign going forward as the Orioles remaining 13 games are against teams that have nothing to play for. Rays fans I know that Baltimore plays the Rays the final 3 games of the season. However by then Tampa will officially be
eliminated from the playoffs.
The Yanks were able to beat the Blue Jays in both games of a double header yesterday. So New York now leads the Orioles by one-half game in the AL East. While the Orioles have today off, the Yankees play one more game with the Blue Jays. Come on Blue Jays, can't you just win one game in this series against the Yankees? The Yankees then have a 3 game series in the Bronx starting tomorrow against the Oakland A's. The A's are fighting desperately to make the playoffs as well. Hopefully that will inspire them to beat the Yankees a couple of times this weekend.
With Oakland's 12-4 victory today they are now tied with Baltimore for the AL Wild Card. With this season, each league having two Wild Card teams, both teams would make the playoffs. Of course they would play each other in a one game playoff series. Again I'm not a big fan of this new Wild Card format. It seems like an awful lot of work to be eliminated from the playoffs in only one game. (I'll save you my gripes that MLB's seasons are already too long.)
My teams, other than the Braves, continue to struggle. The Pirates have only won 4 of their last 18 games to fall to a .500 record. Just like last season, they completely collapsed in the second half of the season. The Cubs suck, there's nothing else to be said. The Red Sox assured themselves of their first losing season in about 15 years. The Dodgers continue to be anemic offensively and I've completely given up on them. Hopefully they can get Carl Crawford back next season and also get some chemistry and actually challenge for a World Series.
But the Braves continue their chase to the playoffs. Congrats to Kris Medlen, the Braves won their 21st straight game with Medlen as their starting pitcher. It's a shame that they'll be playing in the NL Wild Card, although they'll probably finish several games ahead of the Cardinals. I do think the Cardinals will be the second NL Wild Card unless Milwaukee catches them.
themusicaddict.
The Orioles went into extra innings again last night. If you've followed the Orioles at all this season, you should know how that ended. Yes the Orioles won, this is their 15th straight extra-innings victory. With this victory the Orioles continued the two most exciting playoff races this season. Both the battle for the AL East and the Al Wild Card have been the most exciting races this season. Both races look like they could go down to the final day.
Powered by Adam Jones two run home run, the Orioles vanquished the Mariners in 11 innings. The Orioles were able to sweep the Mariners in Seattle. That's a good sign going forward as the Orioles remaining 13 games are against teams that have nothing to play for. Rays fans I know that Baltimore plays the Rays the final 3 games of the season. However by then Tampa will officially be
eliminated from the playoffs.
The Yanks were able to beat the Blue Jays in both games of a double header yesterday. So New York now leads the Orioles by one-half game in the AL East. While the Orioles have today off, the Yankees play one more game with the Blue Jays. Come on Blue Jays, can't you just win one game in this series against the Yankees? The Yankees then have a 3 game series in the Bronx starting tomorrow against the Oakland A's. The A's are fighting desperately to make the playoffs as well. Hopefully that will inspire them to beat the Yankees a couple of times this weekend.
With Oakland's 12-4 victory today they are now tied with Baltimore for the AL Wild Card. With this season, each league having two Wild Card teams, both teams would make the playoffs. Of course they would play each other in a one game playoff series. Again I'm not a big fan of this new Wild Card format. It seems like an awful lot of work to be eliminated from the playoffs in only one game. (I'll save you my gripes that MLB's seasons are already too long.)
My teams, other than the Braves, continue to struggle. The Pirates have only won 4 of their last 18 games to fall to a .500 record. Just like last season, they completely collapsed in the second half of the season. The Cubs suck, there's nothing else to be said. The Red Sox assured themselves of their first losing season in about 15 years. The Dodgers continue to be anemic offensively and I've completely given up on them. Hopefully they can get Carl Crawford back next season and also get some chemistry and actually challenge for a World Series.
But the Braves continue their chase to the playoffs. Congrats to Kris Medlen, the Braves won their 21st straight game with Medlen as their starting pitcher. It's a shame that they'll be playing in the NL Wild Card, although they'll probably finish several games ahead of the Cardinals. I do think the Cardinals will be the second NL Wild Card unless Milwaukee catches them.
themusicaddict.
"Animal Practice"/ "Guys With Kids" Reviews
Hello,
The Fall 2012 TV slate is shaping up to be one of the worst times for new TV shows ever. Yes, it really has been that bad based on the few shows I've seen. I was bored by "Ben & Kate" and I couldn't make myself watch "The Mob Doctor" I thought this Fall season had hit it's nadir. And with those shows let's hope it did. However add one more show to the crap at the bottom of the barrel.
Wow "Guys With Kids" is bad. Other than the guest appearance of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, this first episode didn't practically have anything to recommend it. The premise of the show seems like it could be funny . However the three Dads this show is built around aren't funny. I can't think of one character that is likable. These are people you wouldn't want to hang out with. A weak ex-husband, his shrewish ex-wife and the unfunny other two Dads. Anthony Anderson plays a stay at home Dad of four kids. His character is supposed to be funny, but just isn't. Trying to ring comedy out of a stay at home Dad of four kids shows little potential. This show just isn't funny.
One of the Dads wives was looking forward to getting out of the house and going to a Titanic themed activity at their kid's school. He forgot that they had made this plan. He couldn't go because he already agreed to watch one of the other Dad's kids. Anyway Mom still went out anyway. When she came home he had prepared a Titanic themed apartment as a surprise. Yes one of the biggest disasters in US history is played for laughs. With that kind of "humor", it should be no surprise to anyone that I expect this show to be cancelled fairly quickly.
This show originally premiered on September 12th. You can add "Guys With Kids" to the likely to be cancelled soon list. I didn't realize that "Ben & Kate" and "The Mob Doctor" was going to have such strong competition to get cancelled first. The whole premise of "The Mob Doctor" is so ridiculous that it feels like it's a bad "Saturday Night Live" skit.
Slightly better, but still not amazing is "Animal Practice". This show is about an animal hospital and the allegedly wacky people that work there. Wacky alert: Rizzo the monkey is one of the doctors. Joanne Garcia plays Dorothy Crane. Crane is the granddaughter of the hospital's owner, who just recently passed away. It seems that Crane hasn't been around the practice for a couple of years. Where was she? We aren't told, and a sign of the shallowness of the characters, is we don't care. Crane has decided she wants to be around the practice to protect her legacy.
The head vet is played by Justin Kirk, he's Dr. George Coleman. He's a completely anal and shallow egoist that seems not to care about anything. I didn't even believe that he cared about the animals that he's suppose to take care of. Very predictably this mismatched couple used to be in a relationship. They do have some chemistry, but they are a completely unbelievable couple. Crane is vivacious, but very straight laced and humor challenged. Again Coleman is an anal egotist, a person you'd need to have a great sense-of-humor to want to be around him. Coleman is someone that would feel more comfortable with animals. Coleman's character is so off, it seems highly likely that he has some kind of mental issue.
It's completely believable that this couple broke up, but not believable they ever got together in the first place. This weighty past relationship is symptomatic of the tired comedy ground this series seems it wants to explore. Storylines featuring a mismatched ex-couple and other one dimensional characters doesn't make this show look to have a long term future.
Again the humor is tired and the lead character, Coleman, is boorish. I realize this is fiction and suppose to be funny but after one episode none of these characters ring true. And the wacky characters aren't outrageously funny. We've seen similar characters elsewhere that were a lot more funny. I'm thinking of Frank Burns and Kramer for instance. In fact, the below clip is funnier than the 22 minutes of "Animal Practice".
This is Bob Costas discussing the timing of the "Animal Practice" premiere shown during the closing ceremonies of the recent Summer Olympics.
Let's hope "Revolution" and other upcoming shows can redeem this season. I was looking forward to "Nashville" until I saw it described as a country soap opera. That makes me a little skittish. I also realized that from it's premise it reminds me a lot of "Smash". Two competitive female characters set in a musical backdrop. "Smash" was a decent show it's first season. However I got bored by the sameness of it's stories and won't be watching Season Two.
themusicaddict
The Fall 2012 TV slate is shaping up to be one of the worst times for new TV shows ever. Yes, it really has been that bad based on the few shows I've seen. I was bored by "Ben & Kate" and I couldn't make myself watch "The Mob Doctor" I thought this Fall season had hit it's nadir. And with those shows let's hope it did. However add one more show to the crap at the bottom of the barrel.
Wow "Guys With Kids" is bad. Other than the guest appearance of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, this first episode didn't practically have anything to recommend it. The premise of the show seems like it could be funny . However the three Dads this show is built around aren't funny. I can't think of one character that is likable. These are people you wouldn't want to hang out with. A weak ex-husband, his shrewish ex-wife and the unfunny other two Dads. Anthony Anderson plays a stay at home Dad of four kids. His character is supposed to be funny, but just isn't. Trying to ring comedy out of a stay at home Dad of four kids shows little potential. This show just isn't funny.
One of the Dads wives was looking forward to getting out of the house and going to a Titanic themed activity at their kid's school. He forgot that they had made this plan. He couldn't go because he already agreed to watch one of the other Dad's kids. Anyway Mom still went out anyway. When she came home he had prepared a Titanic themed apartment as a surprise. Yes one of the biggest disasters in US history is played for laughs. With that kind of "humor", it should be no surprise to anyone that I expect this show to be cancelled fairly quickly.
This show originally premiered on September 12th. You can add "Guys With Kids" to the likely to be cancelled soon list. I didn't realize that "Ben & Kate" and "The Mob Doctor" was going to have such strong competition to get cancelled first. The whole premise of "The Mob Doctor" is so ridiculous that it feels like it's a bad "Saturday Night Live" skit.
Slightly better, but still not amazing is "Animal Practice". This show is about an animal hospital and the allegedly wacky people that work there. Wacky alert: Rizzo the monkey is one of the doctors. Joanne Garcia plays Dorothy Crane. Crane is the granddaughter of the hospital's owner, who just recently passed away. It seems that Crane hasn't been around the practice for a couple of years. Where was she? We aren't told, and a sign of the shallowness of the characters, is we don't care. Crane has decided she wants to be around the practice to protect her legacy.
The head vet is played by Justin Kirk, he's Dr. George Coleman. He's a completely anal and shallow egoist that seems not to care about anything. I didn't even believe that he cared about the animals that he's suppose to take care of. Very predictably this mismatched couple used to be in a relationship. They do have some chemistry, but they are a completely unbelievable couple. Crane is vivacious, but very straight laced and humor challenged. Again Coleman is an anal egotist, a person you'd need to have a great sense-of-humor to want to be around him. Coleman is someone that would feel more comfortable with animals. Coleman's character is so off, it seems highly likely that he has some kind of mental issue.
It's completely believable that this couple broke up, but not believable they ever got together in the first place. This weighty past relationship is symptomatic of the tired comedy ground this series seems it wants to explore. Storylines featuring a mismatched ex-couple and other one dimensional characters doesn't make this show look to have a long term future.
Again the humor is tired and the lead character, Coleman, is boorish. I realize this is fiction and suppose to be funny but after one episode none of these characters ring true. And the wacky characters aren't outrageously funny. We've seen similar characters elsewhere that were a lot more funny. I'm thinking of Frank Burns and Kramer for instance. In fact, the below clip is funnier than the 22 minutes of "Animal Practice".
This is Bob Costas discussing the timing of the "Animal Practice" premiere shown during the closing ceremonies of the recent Summer Olympics.
Let's hope "Revolution" and other upcoming shows can redeem this season. I was looking forward to "Nashville" until I saw it described as a country soap opera. That makes me a little skittish. I also realized that from it's premise it reminds me a lot of "Smash". Two competitive female characters set in a musical backdrop. "Smash" was a decent show it's first season. However I got bored by the sameness of it's stories and won't be watching Season Two.
themusicaddict
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
The Orioles Bandwagon Has Room! Climb Aboard!
Hello,
I've completely jumped on the Orioles bandwagon. (The Yankees bandwagon is full and why would you want to be on their bandwagon anyway?) Will I cheer for them after this season, no probably not. But for this season, they are a fun, scrappy team to follow. Looking at their roster, they do have good players, there's no name that screams superstar. (At least the Blue Jays have Jose Bautista.) Nick Markakis is on the verge of being a superstar, too bad he's missing time due to injury. The ageless one, Jim Thome, should be back soon. The Orioles continue to get by on guile and timely hitting.
The Orioles have been on an amazing streak in extra-inning games. They've won 14 straight extra-inning games, including their victory last night. Although they had to go 18 innings last night to get that win. With the Yankees rained out last night, the Orioles and Yankees are virtually tied for the AL East lead. I hope the Blue Jays can derail the Yankees at least once in the double header they are playing today.
The Orioles are enjoying one of their best seasons from the last several years. They already assured themselves that they finish above .500. In fact right now they are 20 games above .500 for the first time since the last game of the 1997 season. They are closing in on making the playoffs, also the last time they did that was in 1997. If they make the playoffs, the Orioles should be happy with that. It would be a big step forward. Unless something amazing happens I doubt they'll be winning the World Series.
One of the things I love most about the AL East is the Orioles could win that division. But so could the Yankees. Also both teams could get in the playoffs courtesy of the AL Wild Card or possibly neither team could even make the playoffs. Thus Baltimore winning that 18 inning marathon last night was so crucial for their playoff hopes.
In fact, I'm disappointed tonight's game ESPN is broadcasting is Rangers-Angels. Yawn! Maybe MLB Network will have the Orioles game.
Meanwhile the Bobby Valentine and Daisuke Matsuzaka (1-5 record) goodbye tour continues. The Red Sox have woke up from their mid-season swoon and have won 4 of their last 5 games. They've virtually knocked the Rays out of the playoff picture. According to espn.com, the Rays are down to a 3.3% chance of making the playoffs. I hope the Red Sox continue thwarting teams heading for the playoffs. Boston goes to New York for the final 3 games of the regular season. I'll never root against the Red Sox, but I do hope they are nice to the Orioles for their final 6 games they play this season.
Go Orioles!
themusicaddict
Go Orioles!
themusicaddict
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Matthew Perry Wants You To "Go On"
Hello,
This really isn't a TV blog, but I've found myself watching a lot of TV lately. Last night I watched the first two episodes of "Go On", Matthew Perry's new show. "Go On" is about a group of strangers who've recently lost someone or something significant in their life. They meet at a therapy and support group. The therapist is suppose to be the straight person, however she has some quirks of her own. Matthew Perry plays the very likable Ryan King, host of his own sports radio talk show. His wife died suddenly about a month previous and he's trying to find his way in this new reality. He doesn't really have any friends other than the people he works with and the people in the therapy group. His assistant, Carrie, is played by Allison Miller. If she looks familiar to you as well, she played Skye on the dinosaur drama "Terra Nova". And since this is a comedy, quirky characters are all over the place.
His bosses at the radio station want him to get counseling, which of course he doesn't think he needs. They require him to go to 10 group meetings before he can work at the station again. The therapist warns him that unless he finds an outlet for his feelings he will explode. He doesn't believe her until he explodes at Terrell Owens, yes TO, because Owens is texting. King's wife, Janie, died because she was driving and texting.
Unlike "Ben and Kate" (which still hasn't premiered and thus can't be canceled yet), there are actually some funny moments in "Go On". The characters are also a lot more likable and the premise is more entertaining. Laura Benanti is the requisite eye candy in this series and eventual love interest of King. (It's entertaining but predictable.) By the way she grabbed King's arm, that may be sooner rather than later.
This show is on NBC. It's for people who want to laugh, but don't want to mentally exert themselves. That sounds like me after I get home from work. This show isn't for Matthew Perry fans. Why? I just don't see this show lasting very long. "Go On" does have some funny moments, But honestly the NBC Fall Season preview show, that the cast of "Go On", appear in is funnier.
I'm not a "Go On" hater and will probably watch it until it's cancelled. It's a good show, but it feels like it's missing one or two elements. That makes me realize there are just too many TV shows now and the writing is diluted. I believe this is one of those times when less may be more. Instead of having a few great shows, a few good shows and a bunch of diluted dreck can we just have a bunch of great shows? Unfortunately for every "Castle", there are 10 to 15 "Mob Doctors".
EW recently previewed the upcoming Fall Season, previewing 104 old favorites and new shows. Of those shows I only have plans to watch 9 of them, a number that I'm sure will increase when I get really bored. I'm a bit of a TV snob. Those couple of hours a day I watch TV I want to be entertained. And if TV can't do that there are always books, my Kindle and the internet.
The returning favorites I plan on watching are "The Good Wife", "The Walking Dead", "Blue Bloods" and "Castle". I was a fan of "Smash" in it's first season. However it felt like they started telling the same story over and over again. So at this point I don't plan on watching that show anymore.
The new shows I'm looking forward to include "The Last Resort", it's first episode is getting a lot of positive word of mouth by critics. Also obviously "Revolution", "Chicago Fire" and "Elementary" "Elementary" is yet another cop show, but I think I'm going to give it a chance. I also plan on watching "Nashville", any show with Connie Britton in it is good by me.
The are two wild cards that don't fall into the above 9 shows. The first is "Copper" which isn't a fall show. The second wild card is "Go On". I'm not convinced of how good "Go On" will be. It could turn out to be great or it might wear out it's welcome quickly. I predict it will do the latter and I'd be surprised if it survives a whole season. How many funny stories are there to tell about a group who've lost something significant in their lives?
themusicaddict
This really isn't a TV blog, but I've found myself watching a lot of TV lately. Last night I watched the first two episodes of "Go On", Matthew Perry's new show. "Go On" is about a group of strangers who've recently lost someone or something significant in their life. They meet at a therapy and support group. The therapist is suppose to be the straight person, however she has some quirks of her own. Matthew Perry plays the very likable Ryan King, host of his own sports radio talk show. His wife died suddenly about a month previous and he's trying to find his way in this new reality. He doesn't really have any friends other than the people he works with and the people in the therapy group. His assistant, Carrie, is played by Allison Miller. If she looks familiar to you as well, she played Skye on the dinosaur drama "Terra Nova". And since this is a comedy, quirky characters are all over the place.
His bosses at the radio station want him to get counseling, which of course he doesn't think he needs. They require him to go to 10 group meetings before he can work at the station again. The therapist warns him that unless he finds an outlet for his feelings he will explode. He doesn't believe her until he explodes at Terrell Owens, yes TO, because Owens is texting. King's wife, Janie, died because she was driving and texting.
Unlike "Ben and Kate" (which still hasn't premiered and thus can't be canceled yet), there are actually some funny moments in "Go On". The characters are also a lot more likable and the premise is more entertaining. Laura Benanti is the requisite eye candy in this series and eventual love interest of King. (It's entertaining but predictable.) By the way she grabbed King's arm, that may be sooner rather than later.
This show is on NBC. It's for people who want to laugh, but don't want to mentally exert themselves. That sounds like me after I get home from work. This show isn't for Matthew Perry fans. Why? I just don't see this show lasting very long. "Go On" does have some funny moments, But honestly the NBC Fall Season preview show, that the cast of "Go On", appear in is funnier.
I'm not a "Go On" hater and will probably watch it until it's cancelled. It's a good show, but it feels like it's missing one or two elements. That makes me realize there are just too many TV shows now and the writing is diluted. I believe this is one of those times when less may be more. Instead of having a few great shows, a few good shows and a bunch of diluted dreck can we just have a bunch of great shows? Unfortunately for every "Castle", there are 10 to 15 "Mob Doctors".
EW recently previewed the upcoming Fall Season, previewing 104 old favorites and new shows. Of those shows I only have plans to watch 9 of them, a number that I'm sure will increase when I get really bored. I'm a bit of a TV snob. Those couple of hours a day I watch TV I want to be entertained. And if TV can't do that there are always books, my Kindle and the internet.
The returning favorites I plan on watching are "The Good Wife", "The Walking Dead", "Blue Bloods" and "Castle". I was a fan of "Smash" in it's first season. However it felt like they started telling the same story over and over again. So at this point I don't plan on watching that show anymore.
The new shows I'm looking forward to include "The Last Resort", it's first episode is getting a lot of positive word of mouth by critics. Also obviously "Revolution", "Chicago Fire" and "Elementary" "Elementary" is yet another cop show, but I think I'm going to give it a chance. I also plan on watching "Nashville", any show with Connie Britton in it is good by me.
The are two wild cards that don't fall into the above 9 shows. The first is "Copper" which isn't a fall show. The second wild card is "Go On". I'm not convinced of how good "Go On" will be. It could turn out to be great or it might wear out it's welcome quickly. I predict it will do the latter and I'd be surprised if it survives a whole season. How many funny stories are there to tell about a group who've lost something significant in their lives?
themusicaddict
Monday, September 17, 2012
Fall TV Shows: Skip "Ben and Kate", "Mob Doctor" (Updated 9/18/12)
Hello,
Previously I reviewed the first episode of "Revolution", it's premiere is tonight. I would recommend this show for those of you who are a sci-fi fan or a fan of J.J. Abrams. Also it's for those of you who may just want to see something different than another cop show. It's one of those shows that I've thought a lot about. I'm intrigued to see what happens in the next episode. "Revolution" had more than 10 million people watch the premiere. "Revolution" is on NBC. (Thanks to ew.com.)
For those of you wondering what "Revolution" is about, here's a quick primer. At the start of the premiere everything seems fine. Then for some reason the power goes out all across the world. Flash forward 15 years and people are living in agrarian societies once again. The government has been overthrown and militias are in charge. The leader of the militia is acquainted with a pair of brothers that seem to know what may have caused the power to go out. The brothers may even know how to get the power back on. The evil (of course he's evil) militia leader wants the secret and his men are looking for the brothers. I also recommend you read Ken Tucker's good preview over at ew.com.
I actually enjoyed the first episode, but the show probably isn't for everyone. But it's a lot better than the two Fox shows I refer to below.
Yes, there are way too many shows about cops, doctors and lawyers. However I'll give a show like that a chance if it has a fresh and interesting twist. For instance, "Copper", the show set in 1864 New York. I gave the show a chance and have become a fan. The show doesn't pull any punches, it's a gritty look at a gritty time in the history of New York. "Copper" debuted on August 19th, 2012 and is on BBC America. Or for those of us with Comcast, it's On Demand.
I watched "Copper's" second episode "Husbands and Fathers" last night. Kevin Corcoran is Copper, he's a cop. However he operates by his own sense of justice. Last night two characters that deserved justice, but were outside of actual police justice, got what they had coming and it was very satisfying. Tom Weston-Jones plays Copper, he's also called Kevin, Corcoran and Corky. For some reason every time I see his face, it makes me think of the main character from "A Clockwork Orange".
"Copper" is my favorite of all the shows I review in this blog post.
If you are feeling immature and looking for some really stupid humor, you might want to check out MTV's "The Inbetweeners". I was very bored the other night and watched the first 4 episodes. This is for those of you that like stupid humor, but think "The Young Ones" is too brash. "The Inbetweeners" is based on a British series. Although it's now Americanized, it still has the very British feel about it. The show follows a bunch of semi-loser high school kids. They aren't the most popular kids but they also aren't the biggest losers in the school. Thus they are in-between. Sometimes their adventures can be funny. I don't think I would recommend you view 4 episodes in one sitting though.
Two shows that I would highly urge you to miss are "Mob Doctor" and "Ben and Kate". Both are on Fox and I understand better why Fox is sucking every dollar it can out of "American Idol". (Don't pay attention to judges allegedly feuding, it's all a desperate publicity ploy.) Although "Idol" lost it's relevance and quality a few seasons ago, it still continues on. Do you know anyone who still watches "American Idol"? But even such a long running show has to have an end eventually. Although "Idol" will probably be around longer than either "Ben and Kate" or "Mob Doctor". I expect both shows to be axed by "AI's" January premiere.
So what kind of shows are they looking to replace "Idol". "Ben and Kate" premieres on September 25th, 2012. Again thanks to Comcast I was able to see the premiere last night. The show is about a brother and sister that grew up raising themselves. Kate is the allegedly responsible one and Ben is the zany brother that pops in every now and then. With him he's suppose to bring hilarity and this show is suppose to be a comedy. I'm glad they said that, because otherwise I wouldn't have known. I think I laughed a total of one time. "Ben and Kate" isn't funny at all. In fact it was so boring I almost didn't watch the entire 22 minutes. Other than giving some people jobs, this show literally has nothing going for it.
Now I'll admit I haven't seen "The Mob Doctor" and probably shouldn't be sharing my opinion. I doubt I'll ever watch the show, I don't even know if it would qualify for car wreck television. However the whole premise behind the show screams stupid. Please don't get invested in this show, there's no way it will last more than a few episodes. Here's the trailer that I could just barely get through, only for the most hard core fans and family members of the cast and crew.
Entertainment Weekly magazine, and I'm sure other people, keep track of which show gets cancelled first. My guess that the show cancelled first this season will either be "Ben and Kate" or "The Mob Doctor". ew.com has an article about 3 ways that "Mob Doctor" could have been worse. Honestly since this show premieres 8 days before "Ben and Kate" it will get canceled first. In fact, it might be canceled before "Ben and Kate's" premiere. "The Mob Doctor" had about half the viewers of "Revolution". It blows my mind that 5 million people actually watched the bad "Doctor".
I'm looking forward to "The Good Wife", "Blue Bloods", "The Walking Dead", "Last Resort" and finally finishing watching "Lost". Also I had been looking forward to Dick Wolf's new show "Chicago Fire", but after seeing previews I'm now not so sure. I'll still give it a shot though.
themusicaddict
Previously I reviewed the first episode of "Revolution", it's premiere is tonight. I would recommend this show for those of you who are a sci-fi fan or a fan of J.J. Abrams. Also it's for those of you who may just want to see something different than another cop show. It's one of those shows that I've thought a lot about. I'm intrigued to see what happens in the next episode. "Revolution" had more than 10 million people watch the premiere. "Revolution" is on NBC. (Thanks to ew.com.)
For those of you wondering what "Revolution" is about, here's a quick primer. At the start of the premiere everything seems fine. Then for some reason the power goes out all across the world. Flash forward 15 years and people are living in agrarian societies once again. The government has been overthrown and militias are in charge. The leader of the militia is acquainted with a pair of brothers that seem to know what may have caused the power to go out. The brothers may even know how to get the power back on. The evil (of course he's evil) militia leader wants the secret and his men are looking for the brothers. I also recommend you read Ken Tucker's good preview over at ew.com.
I actually enjoyed the first episode, but the show probably isn't for everyone. But it's a lot better than the two Fox shows I refer to below.
Yes, there are way too many shows about cops, doctors and lawyers. However I'll give a show like that a chance if it has a fresh and interesting twist. For instance, "Copper", the show set in 1864 New York. I gave the show a chance and have become a fan. The show doesn't pull any punches, it's a gritty look at a gritty time in the history of New York. "Copper" debuted on August 19th, 2012 and is on BBC America. Or for those of us with Comcast, it's On Demand.
I watched "Copper's" second episode "Husbands and Fathers" last night. Kevin Corcoran is Copper, he's a cop. However he operates by his own sense of justice. Last night two characters that deserved justice, but were outside of actual police justice, got what they had coming and it was very satisfying. Tom Weston-Jones plays Copper, he's also called Kevin, Corcoran and Corky. For some reason every time I see his face, it makes me think of the main character from "A Clockwork Orange".
"Copper" is my favorite of all the shows I review in this blog post.
If you are feeling immature and looking for some really stupid humor, you might want to check out MTV's "The Inbetweeners". I was very bored the other night and watched the first 4 episodes. This is for those of you that like stupid humor, but think "The Young Ones" is too brash. "The Inbetweeners" is based on a British series. Although it's now Americanized, it still has the very British feel about it. The show follows a bunch of semi-loser high school kids. They aren't the most popular kids but they also aren't the biggest losers in the school. Thus they are in-between. Sometimes their adventures can be funny. I don't think I would recommend you view 4 episodes in one sitting though.
Two shows that I would highly urge you to miss are "Mob Doctor" and "Ben and Kate". Both are on Fox and I understand better why Fox is sucking every dollar it can out of "American Idol". (Don't pay attention to judges allegedly feuding, it's all a desperate publicity ploy.) Although "Idol" lost it's relevance and quality a few seasons ago, it still continues on. Do you know anyone who still watches "American Idol"? But even such a long running show has to have an end eventually. Although "Idol" will probably be around longer than either "Ben and Kate" or "Mob Doctor". I expect both shows to be axed by "AI's" January premiere.
So what kind of shows are they looking to replace "Idol". "Ben and Kate" premieres on September 25th, 2012. Again thanks to Comcast I was able to see the premiere last night. The show is about a brother and sister that grew up raising themselves. Kate is the allegedly responsible one and Ben is the zany brother that pops in every now and then. With him he's suppose to bring hilarity and this show is suppose to be a comedy. I'm glad they said that, because otherwise I wouldn't have known. I think I laughed a total of one time. "Ben and Kate" isn't funny at all. In fact it was so boring I almost didn't watch the entire 22 minutes. Other than giving some people jobs, this show literally has nothing going for it.
Now I'll admit I haven't seen "The Mob Doctor" and probably shouldn't be sharing my opinion. I doubt I'll ever watch the show, I don't even know if it would qualify for car wreck television. However the whole premise behind the show screams stupid. Please don't get invested in this show, there's no way it will last more than a few episodes. Here's the trailer that I could just barely get through, only for the most hard core fans and family members of the cast and crew.
Entertainment Weekly magazine, and I'm sure other people, keep track of which show gets cancelled first. My guess that the show cancelled first this season will either be "Ben and Kate" or "The Mob Doctor". ew.com has an article about 3 ways that "Mob Doctor" could have been worse. Honestly since this show premieres 8 days before "Ben and Kate" it will get canceled first. In fact, it might be canceled before "Ben and Kate's" premiere. "The Mob Doctor" had about half the viewers of "Revolution". It blows my mind that 5 million people actually watched the bad "Doctor".
I'm looking forward to "The Good Wife", "Blue Bloods", "The Walking Dead", "Last Resort" and finally finishing watching "Lost". Also I had been looking forward to Dick Wolf's new show "Chicago Fire", but after seeing previews I'm now not so sure. I'll still give it a shot though.
themusicaddict
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Cougars-Utes: Utes Win Yet Again
Hello,
I write this as a very disappointed Cougars fan. Utah has won 8 of their last 11 matchups with BYU, including their 24-21 victory last night. And honestly Utah should have won by more, they were clearly the superior team all night long. The fact that BYU had two chances to tie it at the end of the game was very fortunate for BYU. Of course BYU's very average kicker Justin Sorensen had the first field goal blocked and the second one he missed.
But of course losing 24-21 on your arch rival's field is a hell of a lot better than losing 54-10 at your place. At least the Cougars didn't quit in this game, I loved that they kept on fighting. Ultimately though they just don't have enough weapons. BYU's starting quarterback, Riley Nelson, is a slightly above average. He's better than the person who played quarterback for BYU in their game against Utah last year, Jake Heaps. But honestly neither one of those quarterbacks live up to all the great quarterbacks that played at BYU. When you're use to having a Heisman winning quarterback and two quarterbacks who have went to the NFL and won Super Bowls, Riley Nelson just doesn't cut it.
I'm hoping either Taysom Hill or Tanner Mangum grabs BYU's quarterback reins next season and returns BYU back to their normal quarterback prominence. At least back to the John Beck/ Max Hall days.
Looking at BYU's schedule for the rest of this season, BYU will probably finish about 8-4 or 9-3. They go on the road to play Boise State Thursday. Later in the season they have games with Notre Dame and Georgia Tech. I expect the Irish to put a whooping on the Cougars. Notre Dame looked fantastic last night as they completely dominated Michigan State in East Lansing.
USC had yet another loss to Stanford. That wasn't very surprising as they barely got by a below average Syracuse team. That pretty much knocks USC out of the national championship race. Now it looks like it will be yet another SEC team or Notre Dame that wins the national title.
Too bad Louisiana- Monroe couldn't hold on to beat Auburn. I love that Auburn is 1-2 on the season. All the bad karma is coming back in light of all the shenanigans that went on with Scam Newton. I can't wait until that ill gotten title is stripped from Auburn. I assure it will happen eventually.
And is the Pac 12 about to revoke Colorado's membership. They haven't been very good the last several years, but they are absolutely brutal this season. They are 0-3 and were destroyed by Fresno St. last night 69-14. Colorado plays Washington State this weekend. The Cougars haven't looked great this season either, but they have more than enough to send the Buffaloes to 0-4. Looking at Colorado's schedule, it's doubtful they win any games this season.
themusicaddict
I write this as a very disappointed Cougars fan. Utah has won 8 of their last 11 matchups with BYU, including their 24-21 victory last night. And honestly Utah should have won by more, they were clearly the superior team all night long. The fact that BYU had two chances to tie it at the end of the game was very fortunate for BYU. Of course BYU's very average kicker Justin Sorensen had the first field goal blocked and the second one he missed.
But of course losing 24-21 on your arch rival's field is a hell of a lot better than losing 54-10 at your place. At least the Cougars didn't quit in this game, I loved that they kept on fighting. Ultimately though they just don't have enough weapons. BYU's starting quarterback, Riley Nelson, is a slightly above average. He's better than the person who played quarterback for BYU in their game against Utah last year, Jake Heaps. But honestly neither one of those quarterbacks live up to all the great quarterbacks that played at BYU. When you're use to having a Heisman winning quarterback and two quarterbacks who have went to the NFL and won Super Bowls, Riley Nelson just doesn't cut it.
I'm hoping either Taysom Hill or Tanner Mangum grabs BYU's quarterback reins next season and returns BYU back to their normal quarterback prominence. At least back to the John Beck/ Max Hall days.
Looking at BYU's schedule for the rest of this season, BYU will probably finish about 8-4 or 9-3. They go on the road to play Boise State Thursday. Later in the season they have games with Notre Dame and Georgia Tech. I expect the Irish to put a whooping on the Cougars. Notre Dame looked fantastic last night as they completely dominated Michigan State in East Lansing.
USC had yet another loss to Stanford. That wasn't very surprising as they barely got by a below average Syracuse team. That pretty much knocks USC out of the national championship race. Now it looks like it will be yet another SEC team or Notre Dame that wins the national title.
Too bad Louisiana- Monroe couldn't hold on to beat Auburn. I love that Auburn is 1-2 on the season. All the bad karma is coming back in light of all the shenanigans that went on with Scam Newton. I can't wait until that ill gotten title is stripped from Auburn. I assure it will happen eventually.
And is the Pac 12 about to revoke Colorado's membership. They haven't been very good the last several years, but they are absolutely brutal this season. They are 0-3 and were destroyed by Fresno St. last night 69-14. Colorado plays Washington State this weekend. The Cougars haven't looked great this season either, but they have more than enough to send the Buffaloes to 0-4. Looking at Colorado's schedule, it's doubtful they win any games this season.
themusicaddict
Saturday, September 15, 2012
BYU-Utah Battle 2012: Time for Payback for BYU
Hello,
Every Day Is Game Day!
I'm so fired up for tonight's BYU-Utah football game. And as a BYU fan, I'm feeling extremely cocky. I'm not sure why as it's a rivalry game and in this rivalry game, usually you can throw out the records. BYU has the better record, but I expect this to be a very evenly matched game.
The Utes has won 7 of the last 10 games, which is something that needs to be corrected. Then last year at LaVell Edwards Stadium, the Utes laid a whipping on BYU 54-10. I'd like to complain that Utah ran up the score, but they didn't. Due to BYU's alleged quarterback Jake Heaps, he helped the Utes to go off on a strong start. And the Utes cruised to a very easy victory. The Utes scored so many points as the Cougars plainly gave up.
Thankfully that terrible quarterback transferred to Kansas and senior Riley Nelson is now BYU's starting quarterback. While he certainly is better than Heaps, I don't have a ton of confidence in him either. His throws aren't the desired spirals and honestly it feels like he throws the ball up for grabs sometimes. He also wants to tuck the ball and run too many times. Those are usually effective plays, for instance the quarterback draw, but it puts him at risk too injury. The quarterbacks don't have much depth behind Nelson.
I just hope BYU doesn't fall in love with the passing game, even if it's amazingly effective. That would leave them predictable and the Utes defensive line can take advantage of that. BYU needs to do like the Aggies last week and make sure Star Lotulelei's name is mentioned as little as possible. In other words run away from him or find some way to bypass him. Bypass is what ESPN's Trevor Matich suggested.
But BYU can't ever give up on the run, they need to have a balanced offense. Get a few effective running plays and then BYU can use the pass action game.
Also if BYU wins tonight (I'm cocky, but not crazy) can my fellow BYU fans please stop the BCS insanity. I would ask people delay that as long as possible.
themusicaddict
Every Day Is Game Day!
I'm so fired up for tonight's BYU-Utah football game. And as a BYU fan, I'm feeling extremely cocky. I'm not sure why as it's a rivalry game and in this rivalry game, usually you can throw out the records. BYU has the better record, but I expect this to be a very evenly matched game.
The Utes has won 7 of the last 10 games, which is something that needs to be corrected. Then last year at LaVell Edwards Stadium, the Utes laid a whipping on BYU 54-10. I'd like to complain that Utah ran up the score, but they didn't. Due to BYU's alleged quarterback Jake Heaps, he helped the Utes to go off on a strong start. And the Utes cruised to a very easy victory. The Utes scored so many points as the Cougars plainly gave up.
Thankfully that terrible quarterback transferred to Kansas and senior Riley Nelson is now BYU's starting quarterback. While he certainly is better than Heaps, I don't have a ton of confidence in him either. His throws aren't the desired spirals and honestly it feels like he throws the ball up for grabs sometimes. He also wants to tuck the ball and run too many times. Those are usually effective plays, for instance the quarterback draw, but it puts him at risk too injury. The quarterbacks don't have much depth behind Nelson.
I just hope BYU doesn't fall in love with the passing game, even if it's amazingly effective. That would leave them predictable and the Utes defensive line can take advantage of that. BYU needs to do like the Aggies last week and make sure Star Lotulelei's name is mentioned as little as possible. In other words run away from him or find some way to bypass him. Bypass is what ESPN's Trevor Matich suggested.
But BYU can't ever give up on the run, they need to have a balanced offense. Get a few effective running plays and then BYU can use the pass action game.
Also if BYU wins tonight (I'm cocky, but not crazy) can my fellow BYU fans please stop the BCS insanity. I would ask people delay that as long as possible.
themusicaddict
I Love You Stevie Nicks!
Hello,
I've been watching/listening to a lot of concerts on youtube.com lately. Some are great and some are bad. I was disappointed by the one I stumbled across of Jimi Hendrix, a lot of guitar tuning doesn't make for an exciting concert. Hendrix was also sort of a bizarre character. Then I finished watching a Fleetwood Mac concert this morning. That concert was from 1975 and was surprisingly boring, many of the songs they played I'd never heard before. Stevie Nicks sang "Rihannon" which was from their record which had just been out for 7 or 8 weeks. Although I'm not sure how that works out because "Rihannon" wasn't released until 1977 on their "Fleetwood Mac" CD.
Anyway the Fleetwood Mac concert linked to a live 1987 Stevie Nicks concert at Red Rocks. Yes she's a little weird. But she was still gorgeous and her voice is so amazing. Her voice is sexy, spine tingling and ethereal all at the same time. This concert has some slow parts in it, but it also has many great moments. Enjoy:
themusicaddict
I've been watching/listening to a lot of concerts on youtube.com lately. Some are great and some are bad. I was disappointed by the one I stumbled across of Jimi Hendrix, a lot of guitar tuning doesn't make for an exciting concert. Hendrix was also sort of a bizarre character. Then I finished watching a Fleetwood Mac concert this morning. That concert was from 1975 and was surprisingly boring, many of the songs they played I'd never heard before. Stevie Nicks sang "Rihannon" which was from their record which had just been out for 7 or 8 weeks. Although I'm not sure how that works out because "Rihannon" wasn't released until 1977 on their "Fleetwood Mac" CD.
Anyway the Fleetwood Mac concert linked to a live 1987 Stevie Nicks concert at Red Rocks. Yes she's a little weird. But she was still gorgeous and her voice is so amazing. Her voice is sexy, spine tingling and ethereal all at the same time. This concert has some slow parts in it, but it also has many great moments. Enjoy:
themusicaddict
Friday, September 14, 2012
Dodgers Offensive Implosion, Cowboys, Romo: I Won't Believe Until They Win In The Playoffs
Hello,
These are the scores of the Dodgers last 8 games (as always thanks to espn.com):
1) On September 4th the Dodgers lost to the Padres 6-3
2) Loss 4-3
3) Loss 5-2
4) Win 3-2
5) Loss 4-0
6) Loss 1-0
7) Loss 3-2
8) Loss 2-1
Sarcasm alert: In the first 3 games of September the Dodgers "exploded" for 11 runs. That's 3.67 runs per game. But their offensive explosion ended on September 4th. In games from September 4th- September 13th, the Dodgers scored a total of 14 runs, an average of 1.75 runs per game. This weak Dodgers offense has become even worse over the last 4 games. In those four games they've only scored a total of 3 runs, a .75 run per game average. The Dodgers offense can't get any worse than it has been over the last 4 days, can it?
The sad thing in those last 8 games the Dodgers pitching has been great, they've only given up a total of 27 runs. That's even with Josh Beckett and Joe Blanton pitching for them. Oh what I'd give to have Hiroki Kuroda still pitching for the Dodgers. Why did they let him go again? He didn't have the best record, but he had lousy run support. That sounds very familiar.
As can be predicted the Dodgers have only won 1 of those 8 games. In spite of how bad the Dodgers have played, they are still only 2 games out of the NL Wild Card. St. Louis, the team ahead of them, is only two games ahead of them. Fortunately for the Dodgers, at least in theory, they have 3 more games against St Louis this weekend. All three games are at Dodgers Stadium as well. If LA wins those three games, they can move into the second wild card spot. Now do I expect that to happen, no not at all. This Dodgers team can't even claim to be an average team recently. This is a complete offensive collapse.
The Dodgers have 18 games left. They've 3 games against 4 teams that have a better record than them. Those teams: St. Louis, Washington, Cincinnati and San Francisco. According to espn.com the Dodgers have a 12.9% chance of making the playoffs. With the way they've been playing and their upcoming schedule, I would say their chances of making the playoffs are close to 0%.
The Pirates continue their collapse as well, that playoff race pressure really must be extreme. Pittsburgh, 72-70 for the moment, have lost 6 in a row and are already down 4-1 to the Cubs. Yes, that's the same Cubs team that's 56-87. I'd give the Pirates a 0% of making the playoffs this season. With the Red Sox and Braves collapsing last season and the Dodgers and Pirates collapsing this season I definitely should have picked mentally stronger teams.
I've completely jumped on the Orioles bandwagon and I'm hoping I don't jinx them. They seem to be a mentally tougher team than the above teams so far. The Orioles have won 13 straight extra innings games. Now that's a mentally tough team.
I'm a huge Dallas Cowboys fan and have been since the days of Tom Landry and Roger Staubach. And after about 16 years of them being mediocre, I'm glad they had a good game against New York a little over a week ago. Not only a good game, but they also actually won. I'm also glad that Tony Romo had a good game, he actually finally played up to his ridiculously large contract. So those are all good things, BUT.........
This is still the same Cowboys team that has one made the playoffs once in the last 4 years. This is the same Cowboys team that choked at the end of the last season. This is still the same Cowboys team with head case Dez Bryant, tissue soft Miles Austin and underacheiving Kevin Ogletree as their top 3 wide receivers. This is still the same Cowboys team which I was waiting for them to collapse against the Giants. This is the same Tony Romo that still has as many playoff wins as Tim Tebow, 1. This is still the same Tony Romo that let an almost sure victory literally slip between his fingers in their last playoff game in Seattle. This is still the same Tony Romo that doesn't inspire very many people with his ability.
As much of a Cowboys fan I am, I'm also realistic. Until the Cowboys make a deep run in the playoffs and Romo looks good during that run, then I'll start believing. Can this Cowboys team make a deep run in the playoffs, yes. Will they, I'm not so sure. I'd like them to finish this season before they start talking contract extension with Romo. That is what Romo seems to want to do, he's not in a rush to sign an extension. Honestly no matter how Romo plays if someone outbids the Cowboys for Romo's services, that wouldn't break my heart. Also if Romo can't get this team to postseason success by the end of this contract, it's time to let him go. By postseason success I mean, at least the NFC Championship game and the ability for Cowboys fans to expect more the next season. If that doesn't happen then Dallas needs to do what the Redskins did and go out and get a real quarterback.
My favorite play of the NFL early season:
Tomorrow a brief preview of the big BYU-Utah game Saturday night.
themusicaddict
These are the scores of the Dodgers last 8 games (as always thanks to espn.com):
1) On September 4th the Dodgers lost to the Padres 6-3
2) Loss 4-3
3) Loss 5-2
4) Win 3-2
5) Loss 4-0
6) Loss 1-0
7) Loss 3-2
8) Loss 2-1
Sarcasm alert: In the first 3 games of September the Dodgers "exploded" for 11 runs. That's 3.67 runs per game. But their offensive explosion ended on September 4th. In games from September 4th- September 13th, the Dodgers scored a total of 14 runs, an average of 1.75 runs per game. This weak Dodgers offense has become even worse over the last 4 games. In those four games they've only scored a total of 3 runs, a .75 run per game average. The Dodgers offense can't get any worse than it has been over the last 4 days, can it?
The sad thing in those last 8 games the Dodgers pitching has been great, they've only given up a total of 27 runs. That's even with Josh Beckett and Joe Blanton pitching for them. Oh what I'd give to have Hiroki Kuroda still pitching for the Dodgers. Why did they let him go again? He didn't have the best record, but he had lousy run support. That sounds very familiar.
As can be predicted the Dodgers have only won 1 of those 8 games. In spite of how bad the Dodgers have played, they are still only 2 games out of the NL Wild Card. St. Louis, the team ahead of them, is only two games ahead of them. Fortunately for the Dodgers, at least in theory, they have 3 more games against St Louis this weekend. All three games are at Dodgers Stadium as well. If LA wins those three games, they can move into the second wild card spot. Now do I expect that to happen, no not at all. This Dodgers team can't even claim to be an average team recently. This is a complete offensive collapse.
The Dodgers have 18 games left. They've 3 games against 4 teams that have a better record than them. Those teams: St. Louis, Washington, Cincinnati and San Francisco. According to espn.com the Dodgers have a 12.9% chance of making the playoffs. With the way they've been playing and their upcoming schedule, I would say their chances of making the playoffs are close to 0%.
The Pirates continue their collapse as well, that playoff race pressure really must be extreme. Pittsburgh, 72-70 for the moment, have lost 6 in a row and are already down 4-1 to the Cubs. Yes, that's the same Cubs team that's 56-87. I'd give the Pirates a 0% of making the playoffs this season. With the Red Sox and Braves collapsing last season and the Dodgers and Pirates collapsing this season I definitely should have picked mentally stronger teams.
I've completely jumped on the Orioles bandwagon and I'm hoping I don't jinx them. They seem to be a mentally tougher team than the above teams so far. The Orioles have won 13 straight extra innings games. Now that's a mentally tough team.
I'm a huge Dallas Cowboys fan and have been since the days of Tom Landry and Roger Staubach. And after about 16 years of them being mediocre, I'm glad they had a good game against New York a little over a week ago. Not only a good game, but they also actually won. I'm also glad that Tony Romo had a good game, he actually finally played up to his ridiculously large contract. So those are all good things, BUT.........
This is still the same Cowboys team that has one made the playoffs once in the last 4 years. This is the same Cowboys team that choked at the end of the last season. This is still the same Cowboys team with head case Dez Bryant, tissue soft Miles Austin and underacheiving Kevin Ogletree as their top 3 wide receivers. This is still the same Cowboys team which I was waiting for them to collapse against the Giants. This is the same Tony Romo that still has as many playoff wins as Tim Tebow, 1. This is still the same Tony Romo that let an almost sure victory literally slip between his fingers in their last playoff game in Seattle. This is still the same Tony Romo that doesn't inspire very many people with his ability.
As much of a Cowboys fan I am, I'm also realistic. Until the Cowboys make a deep run in the playoffs and Romo looks good during that run, then I'll start believing. Can this Cowboys team make a deep run in the playoffs, yes. Will they, I'm not so sure. I'd like them to finish this season before they start talking contract extension with Romo. That is what Romo seems to want to do, he's not in a rush to sign an extension. Honestly no matter how Romo plays if someone outbids the Cowboys for Romo's services, that wouldn't break my heart. Also if Romo can't get this team to postseason success by the end of this contract, it's time to let him go. By postseason success I mean, at least the NFC Championship game and the ability for Cowboys fans to expect more the next season. If that doesn't happen then Dallas needs to do what the Redskins did and go out and get a real quarterback.
My favorite play of the NFL early season:
Tomorrow a brief preview of the big BYU-Utah game Saturday night.
themusicaddict
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Hell Yeah! Led Zeppelin, Other Full Concerts on Youtube
Hello,
Led Zeppelin announced today that they'll be releasing their 2007 reunion concert later this year. It will first appear in movie theatres this October. I've seen many of my favorite bands live but never was able to see the mighty Zep. I saw Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Journey etc. I also saw Page and Plant once, but they just weren't Led Zeppelin. The closest to Led Zeppelin I've experienced so far so far is Robert Plant. I was able to see him twice in concert. (For fellow Salt Lake City area residents, I saw him at the Salt Palace and at Saltair. Saltair didn't seem appropriate for the golden god of rock n' roll to play.) Next to that, seeing "Celebration Day" is probably the closest I'll ever get to seeing Led Zeppelin in concert. In about a month "Celebration Day" will be in the theatre. I hope they crank the sound. It should be loud as hell and kick butt. This is the trailer.
I actually watched/ listened to the complete concert on youtube.com. It was very good. Robert Plant still has a great voice and Jimmy Page is still, well he's still Jimmy Frickin' Page. Jason Bonham is a hell of a drummer like his father and we even got to hear him sing. And no one can discount the contribution of John Paul Jones.
While watching that I remembered there are other full concerts available on youtube. I spent several minutes browsing youtube. I stumbled across Def Leppard "Hysteria" tour, that was a tour that I saw them live on. They were amazing and the video captures that fairly well. Next up was 2012 Van Halen in concert. Eddie Van Halen is still a guitar god, the man is amazing on the guitar. Um but David Lee Roth, it's time to hang it up. He doesn't over sing, which is a good thing. Because if he did, he might keel over. I'm not sure what you would call his vocal style, sort of a weak singing/ talking combination. I only watched a few minutes of that and lost interest quickly. I plan on checking out Motley Crue later.
However first I wanted to see the band that always played with an edge of danger, Guns N' Roses. One just never knew what Axl Rose would do at any time, he might kill someone. I don't think that even Axl at that time knew what he was going to do the next minute. Even Slash snaps at the audience when they were chanting "Guns N's Roses". So with danger in the air and just releasing the duel "Use Your Illusion" CDs, Guns have a ton of songs that they can play. They could also pull out any of the 12 amazing songs from "Appetite For Destruction". (If that's not one of the Top Ten all-time greatest CDs, then I don't know what is.)
Very wisely they start off with two classics from "Appetite". "It's So Easy" with it's famous "f off" line followed by perhaps their best song ever "Mr. Brownstone". They kept the momentum rolling by next playing "Live and Let Die".
Unfortunately we start to learn the wisdom of Mr. Axl Rose, it's not necessarily a place you want to be at. What did Warren Beatty ever do to him that made Axl so mad? Axl also mocks Jeff Beck later. Is Axl crazy, is that where the danger comes from?
Some highlights: Duff McKagen sings a song titled "Attitude". Lenny Kravitz is a guest on the song he and Slash wrote together titled "Always On The Run". It seems like they were trying to protect Axl's voice then. Also the excellent musicians in Guns N Roses dropped in tags of other songs, including Led Zeppelin's "In My Time Of Dying". They also play some Jimi Hendrix, bracketed around "Civil War". Also they play a Rolling Stones cover "Angie/ Wild Horses". The beginning of which sounds a lot like the beginning of "Patience". After the Stones medley then it's time for "Patience".
Here's the link:
If you want to skip the worst part of the show skip from 1:19 to 1:31. When solos become filler it's a show killer.
After the terrific three song beginning, the show slows down. Too much Axl talking, too much dead air. After starting out with some incredible momentum, they let it die. The Axl grandiosity raises it's ugly head as well. You can clearly see the beginning of the end for the classic lineup of Guns N' Roses. Axl needs someone to help him edit songs, the several minute performance of "Estranged" is just too long. (Although the Slash solo in it is very good.) The nearly three minutes of Axl playing the piano singing "It's Alright" is a show stopper.
themusicaddict
Led Zeppelin announced today that they'll be releasing their 2007 reunion concert later this year. It will first appear in movie theatres this October. I've seen many of my favorite bands live but never was able to see the mighty Zep. I saw Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Journey etc. I also saw Page and Plant once, but they just weren't Led Zeppelin. The closest to Led Zeppelin I've experienced so far so far is Robert Plant. I was able to see him twice in concert. (For fellow Salt Lake City area residents, I saw him at the Salt Palace and at Saltair. Saltair didn't seem appropriate for the golden god of rock n' roll to play.) Next to that, seeing "Celebration Day" is probably the closest I'll ever get to seeing Led Zeppelin in concert. In about a month "Celebration Day" will be in the theatre. I hope they crank the sound. It should be loud as hell and kick butt. This is the trailer.
I actually watched/ listened to the complete concert on youtube.com. It was very good. Robert Plant still has a great voice and Jimmy Page is still, well he's still Jimmy Frickin' Page. Jason Bonham is a hell of a drummer like his father and we even got to hear him sing. And no one can discount the contribution of John Paul Jones.
While watching that I remembered there are other full concerts available on youtube. I spent several minutes browsing youtube. I stumbled across Def Leppard "Hysteria" tour, that was a tour that I saw them live on. They were amazing and the video captures that fairly well. Next up was 2012 Van Halen in concert. Eddie Van Halen is still a guitar god, the man is amazing on the guitar. Um but David Lee Roth, it's time to hang it up. He doesn't over sing, which is a good thing. Because if he did, he might keel over. I'm not sure what you would call his vocal style, sort of a weak singing/ talking combination. I only watched a few minutes of that and lost interest quickly. I plan on checking out Motley Crue later.
However first I wanted to see the band that always played with an edge of danger, Guns N' Roses. One just never knew what Axl Rose would do at any time, he might kill someone. I don't think that even Axl at that time knew what he was going to do the next minute. Even Slash snaps at the audience when they were chanting "Guns N's Roses". So with danger in the air and just releasing the duel "Use Your Illusion" CDs, Guns have a ton of songs that they can play. They could also pull out any of the 12 amazing songs from "Appetite For Destruction". (If that's not one of the Top Ten all-time greatest CDs, then I don't know what is.)
Very wisely they start off with two classics from "Appetite". "It's So Easy" with it's famous "f off" line followed by perhaps their best song ever "Mr. Brownstone". They kept the momentum rolling by next playing "Live and Let Die".
Unfortunately we start to learn the wisdom of Mr. Axl Rose, it's not necessarily a place you want to be at. What did Warren Beatty ever do to him that made Axl so mad? Axl also mocks Jeff Beck later. Is Axl crazy, is that where the danger comes from?
Some highlights: Duff McKagen sings a song titled "Attitude". Lenny Kravitz is a guest on the song he and Slash wrote together titled "Always On The Run". It seems like they were trying to protect Axl's voice then. Also the excellent musicians in Guns N Roses dropped in tags of other songs, including Led Zeppelin's "In My Time Of Dying". They also play some Jimi Hendrix, bracketed around "Civil War". Also they play a Rolling Stones cover "Angie/ Wild Horses". The beginning of which sounds a lot like the beginning of "Patience". After the Stones medley then it's time for "Patience".
Here's the link:
If you want to skip the worst part of the show skip from 1:19 to 1:31. When solos become filler it's a show killer.
After the terrific three song beginning, the show slows down. Too much Axl talking, too much dead air. After starting out with some incredible momentum, they let it die. The Axl grandiosity raises it's ugly head as well. You can clearly see the beginning of the end for the classic lineup of Guns N' Roses. Axl needs someone to help him edit songs, the several minute performance of "Estranged" is just too long. (Although the Slash solo in it is very good.) The nearly three minutes of Axl playing the piano singing "It's Alright" is a show stopper.
themusicaddict
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